Georgia

Samoa look to recover quickly to face Georgian challenge

The Georgians had their own issues last week, suffering a 28-22 loss to Japan defeat in Tbilisi.

Namulauulu Alama Ieremia still expects Georgia to be a difficult assignment.

He said his team is focusing on preparing to put together a full 80 min performance after falling away against the French.

"We want to have a good look at what is a significant difference between in first half and the second half and obviously selection we'll look after that," Namulauulu said.

Pope preaches in half-empty stadium

Orthodox believers were asked not to take part in Roman Catholic services and a Church delegation due to attend also stayed away.

But Church officials said the decision had been taken by mutual agreement.

It was one of the smallest crowds seen at an outdoor papal Mass during Francis's foreign trips.

People who did attend in the capital Tbilisi said afterwards that the papal visit was good for Georgia.

"This is a very significant event, both for the country and for faithful from the whole Catholic parish," Keti Khitarikhvili told Reuters news agency.

Talakhadze takes gold with world-record lift

Lasha Talakhadze set a new world record for total combined weight lifted in the men's over 105kg competition to claim gold at Rio 2016.

The 22-year-old Georgian, gold medallist in the same category at the World Weightlifting Championships in 2015, secured victory by a comfortable margin with a combined total lift of 473kg.

Samoa hold Georgia to a draw

It was mostly a kicking game which was a surprise with Samoa's kicking almost non-existent in its previous test matches.

However, Patrick Fa’apale who played at first-five didn’t shy away from the challenge when he nailed all of his kicks at goal and a try conversion.

The playing field was leveled as rain took away the humidity that would have played a part in making the game even tougher, leading to the first half tryless, with Georgia ahead nine to Samoa's six.

Lelos Georgia make the most of Samoa tour ahead of tough clash

"We arrived very early in the morning on Saturday last week and then we relaxed from then through Sunday and a cross country road trip to the other side of the island just to relax a little bit more.It has just been fantastic," the former head coach for the Counties Manukau said.

Milton Haig and the Georgian team even took a special fishing trip out to Samoa’s coast and caught themselves a large yellow fin tuna. However, work soon started on Tuesday morning when Haig gathered his team for the conditioning ahead of the tough clash.

Manu Samoa coach confident of his training squad

"I’m really glad I got all the guys that were available to come and join us. There are a few others that will come by later on but their leagues are still running so they won’t be able to join us yet," said Ieremia.

The new head coach's main focus is rebuilding the Manu Samoa and letting go of the memories of last year's performance in the World Cup.

One notable aspect of his rebuilding efforts is the inclusion of two young names in the training squad.

Georgia to play three rugby tests in the Pacific

According to RNZI, the mid-year test window marks the beginning of Rugby World Cup qualifying for the three Pacific nations, who failed to earn direct entry to the 2019 tournament last year.

With only a three-week June window, Georgia and the three Pacific teams will play each other over consecutive weeks.

Georgia beat Namibia 17-16

Namibia led at half-time in a World Cup game for the first time after two penalties by Theuns Kotze.

Georgia were guilty of too many handling errors in a first half that lasted 68 minutes in real time.

However, they scored two tries after the break through Mamuka Gorgodze and Lasha Malaguradze to help seal victory before Kotze went over for Namibia.

While that try earned the Africans their first ever World Cup point, the result lifts Georgia, who have eight points, above Tonga into third place in Pool C.

Lukas Podolski out of Germany's final Euro 2016 qualifiers

The German football federation (DFB) says Podolski travelled with a swollen ankle from his club Galatasaray and was diagnosed upon arrival in Frankfurt with "a painful capsule irritation of the left upper ankle joint."

The DFB says Podolski left the German team's base Tuesday and was returning to his club for further treatment.

Coach Joachim Loew still has 22 players in his squad, though Bayer Leverkusen winger Karim Bellarabi was laboring with a shoulder problem.

Sloppy, but coach unfazed

The 43-10 win over Georgia at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium was not the emphatic victory the side had hoped for, after talking about needing to step up a level during the week.

There were some positives, with Waisake Naholo's outstanding opening try with his first touch in a World Cup and Julian Savea's hat-trick putting smiles on the face of the All Blacks coach.

However it will be the error rate that will be of most concern, with the side struggling with some of the basics of the game.