Georgia’s rugby team stood holding candles before a priest on Saturday to receive words of encouragement all too similar to those issued during the country’s short 2008 war — beat Russia.
The teams met on Saturday in a European Cup qualifier played in Trabzon, Turkey — neutral territory to limit security risks.
Georgia ran out 36-8 winners, but behind the chest-beating before and after the game, the confrontation offered a glimpse into the ties that still bond the ex-Soviet neighbors.
“In a rugby game you can see brother playing against brother. Politics will always highlight those divisions, but you wait and you see that after the game they are still brothers,” the team’s vice captain Ilia Zedginidze, 33, said.
Tensions still simmer some 18 months after Russia crushed an assault by US ally Georgia on the rebel region of South Ossetia in a five-day war.
While Georgia is at odds with itself politically over whether to mend ties with its former Soviet master, its people are suffering under a trade embargo on Georgian products, visa restrictions and closed travel links.
Many say they simply want normality to return after generations of shared history between the nations.
“We respect Russians, they are no different from us,” Merab Khunjgurua, 36, said, who works for a copper exporting company. “Flowers are blooming now and memories of the war will fade. Things are returning to normal. I can’t understand why our relations cannot as well.”
Politically, there is little sign of improvement.
Just over a week ago a pro-government Georgian television channel ran a fake news report that Russian tanks had entered the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, causing panic among its citizens.
On Saturday, buses packed with Georgians flooded the Black Sea town of Trabzon, just across the frontier, after 5,800 tickets allocated to Georgia were sold out in a matter of hours.
The Russian section of the stadium was practically empty. Vladislav Korshunov, Russian rugby team captain, saw no spirit of score settling on either side.
“Today’s game had nothing to do with politics ...We played a more experienced team than we are. That’s all,” he said.
Spectators waved Georgian and NATO flags. Saakashvili’s wife Sandra was among the fans.
If the 2008 war was a mismatch of David and Goliath proportions, the rugby confrontation was more evenly matched.
In Tbilisi cars tore down street honking horns and streaming flags from the windows.
But for some fans the game brought back anger.
“If the Georgians had even started to lose I would have jumped down on the field myself and joined the scrum. After what they did to us, this is an important matter of pride,” David Shvelidze, a Tbilisi banker said.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
Hulking Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan on Monday surged away from the pack to win the second stage of the Criterium de Dauphine in Issoire, France, to take the overall lead from Tadej Pogacar. The 1.93m, 87kg Milan had to battle to keep up on a hilly 204.6km run through central France from Premilhat. When the pack hit the home straight, he rocketed away from his rivals to collect a 10-second victory bonus and the yellow jersey. “That was really tough,” Milan said. “I was dropped at one point, and I was really on the limit, but I have to say
RSS