Georgia U20s repeated the heroics of 2023; They split the pre-tournament series with Georgia in Tbilisi on Wednesday as they beat England 17-45 at last year’s World Rugby U20 Championship.
Defeat 12 months ago finally did not deter Mark Mapletoft’s side as they cruised through their pool to reach the semi-finals in South Africa. They will now look for a similar result as they travel to Cape Town again after another shared series loss with the Georgians.The English ended their recent Six Nations title campaign with a 31-7 thrashing of their Eastern European hosts last Friday.
However, Mapletoft opted to go with a dozen changes to the starting XV and opponents in Wednesday’s rematch, coached by former Georgia Rugby World Cup 2023 coach Levan Mysashvili, happily opting for their eight-try contest where the hosts had five. .England went 5–3 up with an eighth-minute maul try from Nathan Mikello, but they were in arrears and couldn’t find Giorgi Spanderashvili’s try 10 minutes later.
Georgia U20s repeated the heroics of 2023, defeating England to share the series.
Aflabi Fasogban had a try disallowed for an illegal block and looked set to put the visitors ahead at the break, but the prop soon fouled himself on the stroke of half-time and was given a yellow card.By the time his sin-binning crossed 10 minutes into the second half, England, down and struggling in the 30 degree heat, trailed 5-13 to 5-28 after two more tries.
They bounced back quickly enough when the contest became 15 v 15 again, with his replacement Archie Green, son of former England and Wasps prop Will, stepping up.
Georgia U20s repeated the heroics of 2023, defeating England to share the series.
However, a brace of tries from winger Tariel Balikashvili in the 60th and 63rd minutes extinguished any hopes of a comeback and England were instead forced to settle for a consolation try from full-back Eoin Jones in the 72nd minute. Georgia U20s repeated the heroics of 2023, defeating England to share the series.
England open their U20 Championship on June 29 with Argentina taking on Fiji and hosts South Africa. Meanwhile, Georgia will open against Australia before facing Ireland and Italy. Click here for all the details on the upcoming World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa.