Georgia slipped once again on Romanian hurdle, 
could not reclaim the Antim Cup and finished 
third on ENC 2003 ladder

Fact_File

The game was played at Tbilissi National Stadium, on
a cool, sunny afternoon, in front of about 35
thousand subdued spectators who even did not respond
to the announcers calls to support their team by
chanting 'Le-Lo, Le-Lo'

Georgia led 6-0 by then but to the Lelos and the
majority of crowd is was a meaningless battle as day
before Portugal surprisingly defeated Russia away
from home and secured the title whilst Georgia and
Romania were left just with the prospect of finishing
as runner-ups and lifting the guilded Antim Cup

Romania duly responded to the challenge. Georgia
could not be accused of not trying but they still lacked
passion, wit, vision and viable tactical scheme.
Moreover, the execution of basic skills was awful
from both sides

It was a start-stop affair throughout, the most
boring rugby international ever staged at the ground.
For the first time ever Lelos failed to score a try
against Oaks who played without their first choice
back-row trio of Manta, Petrache and Corodeanu, and
the aggregate score was the lowest in five encounters
between those two friendly nations

Unlike prevoius meetings, this time Georgia was
unable to outmuscle opposition.  Instead, Lelos
indulged themselves in kicking away possession
aimlessly and lost the plot.  As the Oaks adapted
better to this kind of aerial ping-pong, Georgia were
pinned to their half for the most part of the match

They even did not try to drive the ball by forwards,
and suck and stretch the Oaks defence till injury
time, and till then never came close to crossing
Romanian tryline. On the other hand, the Oaks were
ably guided by their recalled scrumhalf, wily Mitu
and fully capitalised on Georgian blunders

Their pacy backs looked dangerous throughtout.
Brezoianu stood out even among them and it was no
coincidence that he was on the end of Maftei 50m solo
run which started with Lelos coughing the ball deep
into injury time of the first half

Before that Georgia, playing with little breeze, led
thanks to two close range penalties from Jimsheladze
but it should be noted that the Oaks drove the maul
across the line on 9th minute but could not ground
the ball, Mitu twice (25' 34') sent Brezoianu into
gaps but Georgia clesed down, and once Gontineac was
tackled and turned over in front of posts

After the interval the Oaks almost scored from the
rolling maul and then went to the blind side but
Georgia stood firm. Soon came the disaster: after
another sequence of kick-exchange the Lelos fullback
misfielded the ball, chasing Oaks gently bumped him
in the back and to dismay of knowledgable crowd, the
French ref awarded a try and Georgia fell behind by 6

Then substitutions followed but to no avail. The Lelos
still were a rudderless ship. They kicked on full,
they dropped and turned over the ball but amazingly,
they were still pinching line-out on Oaks throws. In
meantime, Tofan missed 42m PK and 25m drop, and
Jimsheladze failed from 38m PK

The decisive blow came with 8 minutes of normal time
remaining. Georgia botched 22m dropout and three Oaks
were left in front of a single tackler. He still
managed to stop the ball-carrier but Maftei reached
out and planted the ball in double-movement. A
touch-judge was just on spot but he endorsed the
score

All in all, the Oaks were much better team on the day
and won deservedly. As for Georgia RU big guns, they
SHOULD raise the matter with FIRA AER as Latin refs
clearly favour their kins in every 50/50 situation
and still regard the Lelos as new boys of ENC fold

Romania scored three dubious tries on their last two
visits to Tbilissi. Yes, they have scored as they
could and it was to the refs to disallow them, but as
it seems to us, naive Caucasians, whistle-blowers apply
different sets of the Laws to different teams