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BEST PLAYERS
Leading role Giving directions to his team-matesPICS
Gogita Bukhaidze“He’s a different type of player to
Mamuka. I’m sure Mamuka won’t mind
me saying Beka has more skills and is
the type of guy we think would make
it in Super Rugby. He’s not as big and
abrasive and doesn’t have the same
out-and-out strength as Mamuka, but
he’s a skilful player and definitely has
those leadership qualities.”
Haig also pays tribute to Gorgadze for
putting in such strong performances last
season after a year-long injury absence.
He needed three operations after tearing
ligaments in his ankle in May 2017 but
returned to start six of Georgia’s eight
Tests in 2018-19 and Haig describes
his comeback as “phenomenal”.
It was another injury that saw
Gorgadze find his niche at No 8. He
followed his cousin in swapping the
round ball for the oval one when he was
seven after an age-range change meant
he could no longer play in the same
football team as his friends. After stints
at fly-half and centre for his local club
Kharebi in the city of Rustavi, he moved
to the front row and played there until his
mid-teens, when a back problem arose.
“I was trying to prop in the scrum and
couldn’t because I’d hurt my back,”
recalls Gorgadze, who pays tribute to
the influence of his mother after his
father died in 2000. “I didn’t needsurgery but I had to do special exercises
for my back and was put on a diet to
lose 6kg (nearly a stone). I then grew
6cm in three months, so the next
season I played in the back row.
“My favourite position is No 8. The
strategy is often for me to be on the
edge, taking high balls and running back.
I like the technical stuff – high balls,
skills – as well as the physical game.”
It’s fitting that Gorgadze names Kieran
Read as one of the players he admires
for the Kiwi fulfils a similar role for the All
Blacks: positioned in the wide channels
to use his power and ball skills to bust
defences and create opportunities.
Duane Vermeulen is another Gorgadze
namechecks, while acknowledging he
cannot replicate the brute force that is
central to the Springboks No 8’s game.
Gorgadze, who plays his club rugby
in France and joined Bordeaux-Bègles
from Stade Montois last year, is a
powerful ball-carrier but there is alsoan athleticism to his play that suits the
modern game. Graham Rowntree, who
has been working as Georgia’s forwards
coach for the past year, is a big fan.
“I call him ‘Rock Star’,” chuckles the
ex-England and Lions prop. “He’s one
hell of an athlete and an exceptional
player – you forget how young he is.
He picks things up very quickly, is very
dynamic, a good footballer and a hard
worker. He’ll be a star of world rugby.”
Gorgadze is already making indents
into the wider rugby consciousness.Last autumn he was named alongside
Sam Underhill and Justin Tipuric in the
back row of The Telegraph’s Team of
the Week for his performance in defeat
against Italy – his first Test for 20 months.
One passage of play late in that match
encapsulates Gorgadze as a player. He
catches a high ball on halfway, deftly
avoids putting a foot in touch and then
surges forward. He floors Italy wing
Mattia Bellini with a huge hand-off, steps
around one defender and offloads out
of a tackle by another. Had Georgia’s
handling later in the move been better
they would have scored a try.
That’s the range of skills he will bring
to Georgia’s World Cup campaign later
this year. Gorgadze says that the target
is “two wins minimum”. That should see
them finish third in Pool D, which also
features Australia, Fiji, Uruguay and
Wales, and thus qualify for RWC 2023.
Regardless of what happens in Japan,
the growth of the sport in Georgiameans the Lelos will remain one of the
coming forces in the world game.
“As I’ve started playing more, I’ve got
more recognised on the streets,” says
Gorgadze. “It’s now the first sport for us
in Georgia and everyone is happy we’ve
had some success. When I started rugby,
there were only four children training
in the morning group. Now there are
hundreds of boys and girls playing.
“It’s a massive honour to represent
your country and it’s also a big
responsibility because lots of kids
and parents look up to you.”
Gorgadze is a hugely impressive
young man, not only in the high-level
performances he produces on the pitch
but his attitude off it. He can speak four
languages – Georgian, Russian, English
and French – and is aware of the bigger
picture, recognising the part he plays in
developing the sport as a role model.
He’s even done a spot of coaching in
France and says working with children
has helped him as a player because it
makes him look at the game differently.
This ‘Rock Star’ has the potential to be
a smash hit in world rugby – look out for
him on the pitches of Japan this autumn.Close quarters
Getting stuck into
Georgia training