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Georgian star Aka Tabutsadze just equalled legendary All Blacks trio

Georgia's Aka Tabutsadze could get to 50 Test tries in record quick time. Photo: Rugby Europe

Unstoppable Georgian winger Aka Tabutsadze has become one of the top 10 try-scorers in Test rugby after crossing twice in the Lelos’ thumping 62-32 Rugby Europe Championship win over Spain in Madrid on Sunday.

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Tabutsadze’s brace included a fine solo effort from 55 metres and put him level on 46 test career tries with celebrated All Blacks trio, Joe Rokocoko, Julian Savea and Christian Cullen.

The 27-year-old has got to the milestone in record quick time, scoring his 46 tries in just 48 caps – a ratio of 0.96 tries per game, which ranks him above everyone else in the top 10 other than world rugby’s all-time top try-scorer, Japan’s Daisuke Ohata, who crossed the whitewash 69 times in 58 caps.

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Richard Cockerill on Georgia’s dangerous finishers

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    Richard Cockerill on Georgia’s dangerous finishers

    The Georgian head coach discusses the quality attacking threats his side have in both the backs and the back row.

    Tabutsadze scored against Spain on his Test debut in February 2020 and hasn’t looked back since. With potentially two games in the Rugby Europe Championship to come – a semi-final against Romania and then the final, against Portugal or Spain, if they get there, Tabutsadze could bring up his half-century of tries on the same day he celebrates his 50th cap.

    You wouldn’t bet against him doing so because, even by his prolific standards, he is in a red-hot streak of form, scoring 11 times in his last 10 Test appearances. If successful, he’ll overtake the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, George North and Doug Howlett and draw level with Rory Underwood in sixth place in the list of the world’s best finishers, with the England flyer managing 49 for his country and one for the British and Irish Lions.

    Ohata’s total is inflated by tries against weaker Asian opposition, coming at a time when the Brave Blossoms played teams like Chinese Taipei. And it has to be said that Tabutsadze has benefitted from Georgia’s dominance below Six Nations rugby. The Pool A win over Spain extended Georgia’s unbeaten record in the Rugby Europe Championship to an incredible 36 matches, and they are looking well set for an eighth consecutive title and a second under head coach Richard Cockerill.

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    However, Tabutsadze, who plays his club rugby for the Georgian representative side the Black Lion, has managed to score against Australia, twice in two games, and France and Italy. And even the aforementioned All Blacks trio would have been proud to score some of the tries he has scored, a length-of-the-field effort against the Wallabies in last year’s July internationals being particularly memorable for the winger in the red scrum cap.

    Tabutsadze was likened to England try-machine Jonny May not long after Cockerill took charge of the team just over a year ago.

    “Aka is a finisher, he reminds me of Jonny May, you have no idea what he is going to do but he managed to find a way to the try line,” Cockerill said in an interview with RugbyPass.

    “They are typical wingers; they have got instincts that they are born with around scoring tries and sometimes they do the daftest things so in that way they are both very similar.”

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    For once, Tabutsadze was eclipsed on the try-scoring front on Sunday. Team-mate Davit Niniashvili marked his first game as Georgia captain and his first start at fly-half with a hat-trick against Los Leones.

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    JWH 6 hours ago
    'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

    Do you hear yourself? Do you have any concept of world view? Have you tried looking into why people call Ireland ‘arrogant’? Obviously not.


    We started calling you arrogant when you called our captain a ‘shit Richie McCaw’. In New Zealand. On our turf. Don’t think that kind of behaviour really calls for respect, does it.


    NZ don’t really talk ourselves up, if anything the rugby does it for us. No kiwi goes in the media and says: ‘We are gonna win the RWC’. However, I have found many instance of IRISH media saying that the Irish should win, without a doubt. THAT is disrespectful.


    The All Blacks have played good rugby, even some of the best rugby ever, at many points in history, but I don’t think you could find a single instance of one of those players, or the NZ media, saying that they should whitewash their opponents. Ever.


    Now, onto your analysis. Ireland DID choke the QF. They beat the champions, they were ranked first coming into it, a lot of players at the peaks of their powers. Its hard to say that they didn’t choke. Obviously, their preparation was just not as good as NZ, and thats all there really is to it.


    If Ireland had repsected that ABs team and that QF more, maybe they would’ve prepared properly for it and won. But they didn’t.


    Maybe if Ireland had won their QF last RWC, they wouldn’t have to be in the same pool as SA and Scotland. I mean, its called a draw for a reason. NZ got third last RWC, so of course they should get a reasonable pool, and they were ranked pretty highly too. If you want to talk about easy pools, look no further than Pool 3 with England, Australia, Fiji, and Georgia I think?


    Now, obviously you don’t remember how that QF ended, so I’ll go ahead and rectify that. Ireland reclaimed the ball off kickoff and marched for 20ish phases into the opposition half. Savea then won a turnover, but the referee refused to give it, so play went on. Finally, at the NZ 22, after not giving up a single penatly in 25 phases of hard defense, Sam Whitelock, the most capped All Black of all time, wins the game with an incredible steal.


    Now, NZ players having a go at Ireland. Do you cry when you get hit after making the first swing? We all know Sexton is a prick on the field, its just the truth. And Ioane never backs down from a clash, so he thought he should humble a player who has never won an international knockout game who thought he was all that. Don’t really see the issue, its poetic justice really.

    83 Go to comments
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