Georgia proved once again on Sunday that they are pretty much an unstoppable force at this level as they won the men’s Rugby Europe Championship title once again.
They welcomed Spain to the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi and, having beaten the same opponents 62- 32 in pool play a few weeks before, came out on top again.
This time the score was 46-28, but it was Spain who took an early lead through centre Gonzalo Lopez Bontempo’s penalty.
Georgia then had a try disallowed before Lopez Bontempo’s second penalty made it 6-0 to the visitors just before the first quarter was over.
Hooker Vano Karkadze (Player of the Match) then got Georgia on the board with a try before Spain fought back with a try of their own. Winger Martiniano Cian scored it after a neat floated pass set him up and the conversion made it 13-5.
Spain then had a man yellow carded and a second maul try for Georgia from Karkadze made it 13-10.
With Spain still down to 14, Georgia number14 Akaki Tabutsadze got in on the act. He scored his seventh try of the campaign and, importantly after a tough first period, the score along with the conversion by full-back
Dachi Papunashvili made it 17-13 to the hosts. Amazingly that was Tabutsadze’s 48th try in 51 Tests.
A late penalty from Lopez Bontempo made it 17-16 at the break and the game was very much still in the balance.
Georgia’s fourth try of the day came five minutes into the second half when loosehead prop Nika Abuladze went over from close range with Papunashvili converting for 24-16.
They had their tails up now and Karkadze completed a hat-trick of maul tries soon after before, in the 50th minute, a chip over the top set Tabutsadze away and his pace saw him get to the ball and ground it for his 49th Test try.
All of a sudden it was 34-16 and all Georgia and, with 13 minutes to go,
stand-off Davit Niniashvili put scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze in for another try. It was converted for 41-16.
Spain did keep fighting into the last 10 minutes and scored next via try from replacement Lucas Santamaría.
Tabutsadze completed his hat-trick with seven minutes to go when he became just the seventh male player ever to score 50 Test tries.
Spain had the last say at the death when Lopez Bontempo scored a try and converted it, but this was Georgia - and Tabutsadze’s - day.
Portugal and Romania then met at CAR Jamor in Lisbon in the Bronze Final to finish off a great weekend of action and a great tournament in general.
A penalty by Romania scrum-half Alin Conache put Romania 3-0 up after 10 minutes and, just after the end of the first quarter, their first try came from second-row Jacob Nicolaas Immelman. Conache converted for 10-0.
Portugal were trying to get into the game, but the visitors were defending well and a Conache penalty made it 13-0.
The perfect day for Romania got better a couple of minutes before half-time when back-row Cristi Boboc finished off a team try in the corner and it was 18-0 at the break.
As the rain continued to fall in Lisbon in the second half points became harder to come by. On the hour mark, with Romania having a men in the sin bin, Portugal scored a try via replacement Nuno Mascarenhas. Fellow sub Joris Moura converted to make it 18-7.
Any hopes of a comeback were sniffed out when Conache kicked a penalty in the 63rd minute to make it 21-7.
Romania then got back to 15 men and saw the game out for an impressive win on the road.
Detailed results and replays of the match can be found here
By Gary Heatly
