The match of Georgian and Japanese national team, which ended in 25:22 as a result of drop-kick scored at the last moment was estimated by the coaches at the press-conference. Milton Haig manager of “The Lelos” and Irakli Abuseridze captain of the team came to the press-conference. Zealander specialist mentioned a good playing in Georgian defense and said that the reason of the failure was none discipline and none organized playing.
Milton Haig:” Unfortunately, we finished unbeatable serie of home matches. As for the match, I am satisfied with playing in defense and we did well in attack too in several episodes. But our weak point was none discipline and none organized playing. After taking the ball from static playing was not as organized as we wanted, lack of discipline was reflected on sinnbin of Kolelishvili and a lot of penalties.
Our goal was to be depended on physical power and to gain superiority in such way, but we overdue and we could not manage to use this superiority while playing.
To my mind, the failure was not caused either by a wrong decision or a weak performance. The guys did their best and played for 75 minutes very well, but they did not do well in 5 minutes and that’s why we lost.
At the end of the match, it would be better if we kicked a drop-kick and to try achieving our goal in such way, but we were close to the penalty area and they tried to score try and then the situation changed and our opponent scored a drop-kick. Such thing is very common when equal teams play rugby.
We wanted our team to play as it played the first twenty minutes, but then we lost our discipline. Kolelishvili was sinnbined and the problems started from then. Substitutions justified my hopes, everyone did their job well and I cannot blame them in failure.
In a week, we have a difficult match against Fiji. We have to acknowledge our mistakes, made in this following match and we have to improve them. We should be more responsible”.
Irakli Abuseridze captain of Georgian national rugby team also named not having discipline the reason of the failure:” what we showed in the first 20-25 minutes, our plan was to show exactly such playing, but then we stayed on the field 14, we were used to commit fouls too very often and that’s why we lost. we really deserved to lose this match. But the discipline betrayed us. We gained a very big experience with this match, we grew up and it will be help us in the future.
At the end of the first half, in five meters of opponent’s penalty area, we preferred to attack to penalty, we played for a try but we did not score try.
I congratulate Japan, but I think that we did not deserve failure. We will prepare well for the next match and we will try to beat Fiji national team”.
After that, Eddie Jones manager of Japanese national team and its captain Toshiak Hirose came to the press-conference. Australian specialist appraised Georgian national team and stated that they were lucky and that’s why they won.
Eddie Jones:” we were lucky, that we won. It is not common for us to win at the last minute of the match with a drop-kick. I am satisfied with me team, with their determination they managed to take the ball from the red zone and did not let Georgians score try.
We played against a very strong team and it was very difficult to parry their attacks, but the guys managed it. Georgian national team is much stronger than Romania and if you improve your playing you will have a very strong team”.
Toshiaki Hirose:” we had difficulties in the first twenty minutes, then we mobilized and we started such match as we expected. We won two matches in a row at European tournament and I am happy due to it. In spite of this, we always work on improving playing and we have a wish of more things”.
Zura Ksovreli
