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Coach Levan Maisashvili has lamented his team’s poor discipline as Georgia crashed to Australia in their Rugby World Cup opener in Paris.
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The Georgians were penalised 14 times in the first half alone during their 35-15 loss at the Stade de France on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
They also lost winger Miriani Modebadze to a yellow card for jumping over a ruck to try and slap the ball from Wallabies halfback Nic White.
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Errors by Georgia also proved costly, with a turning point midway through the second half when fullback Davit Niniashvili made a break but ignored three teammates on his inside.
His offload went to Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou, who popped a pass for Ben Donaldson to score and extend the lead to 28-8.
“Our goal was to not receive more than eight or nine penalties but maybe we had bad management and the opponent played very well,” Maisashvili said post-match.
“The discipline problem is not only due to a bad game, we had a lot of emotions too.
“We missed at least three chances and we lost our energy in the end.”
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The coach said the young Australians benefited from regular exposure to top-level rugby.
“If you compare the Australian team to us, sure they have young players but they have experience playing against good teams, and they have much more opportunities to play highly competitive rugby,” Maisashvili said.
Georgia have two weeks before their next match in Toulouse against Portugal, the only Pool C opponents beneath them in the world rankings.
