Georgia coach Levan Maisashvili has named his match-day squad for Friday’s Test against the Springboks in Pretoria, only the second time these two teams will meet in the international arena.
The match at Loftus Versfeld is scheduled to start at 19h00 and will be broadcast live on SuperSport, with Scotland’s Mike Adamson the man in the middle.
Inside centre Merab Sharikadze will lead the Lelos against the Rugby World Cup champions, with Maisashvili handing a potential debut to one uncapped player, Luka Japaridze (prop), who was included on the bench.
Sharikadze is the most experienced member of the Georgian match-23, and has represented his country in 77 Tests so far. Three more players have more than 50 Test caps – hooker Jaba Bregvadze (66), lock Kote Mikautadze (67) and scrumhalf Vasil Lobzhaidze (58).
“We have a very good relationship with SA Rugby - it's a big honour for us to play against the Springboks here in South Africa, and we appreciate the respect shown by them to have us here,” said Maisashvili.
“We need experience and are trying to build depth in our squad, as we have a lot of young players in our squad.
“These guys are former Under-20s and are used to playing against very strong U20 sides, and we hope they will gain a lot of experience from playing against the Springboks.
“Our forwards are traditionally strong, but we are playing against a team known to have one of the best packs in the world. We can’t only play with our forwards though, and we will have to use our backs too, hopefully they can show what they can do.”
The Lelos are coming into the match on the back of a 48-15 victory over the Netherlands in Telavi last weekend, in a Rugby Europe Championship match, where they scored a total of eight tries, with Davit Niniashvili (fullback) scoring a hat-trick and Akaki Tabutsadze (right wing) adding a brace.
Georgia have featured at every Rugby World Cup since 2003 and comprehensively beat Uruguay 33-9 in their RWC pool game in Japan in 2019, and four years earlier, in England in 2015, the Lelos were too strong for Namibia (17-16) and Tonga (17-10).
They are currently 12th on the world rankings, just below Fiji and higher than Tonga, Samoa and Italy.
Georgia: 15 Davit Niniashvili, 14 Akaki Tabutsadze, 13 Giorgi Kveseladze, 12 Merab Sharikadze (captain), 11 Demur Tapladze, 10 Tedo Abzhandadze, 9 Vasil Lobzhaidze, 8 Tornike Jalagonia, 7 Beka Saginadze, 6 Giorgi Tsutskiridze, 5 Konstantine Mikautadze, 4 Gigauri Davit, 3 Giorgi Melikidze, 2 Jaba Bregvadze, 1 Guram Gogichashvili. Replacements: 16 Giorgi Chkoidze, 17 Nikoloz Khatiashvili, 18 Luka Japaridze, 19 Nodar Cheishvili, 20 Giorgi Javakhia, 21 Gela Aprasidze, 22 Giorgi Babunashvili, 23 Ilia Spanderashvili.