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Georgia star Tedo Abzhandadze to swap French clubs after early release
By Francisco Isaac
It is a done deal. Tedo Abzhandadze will move to Stade Aurillacois Cantal Auvergne, joining his fellow Georgian teammates Luka Nioradze, Lasha Mchelidze, Mikheil Alania, and a few others, by signing a contract with the Pro D2 team for the next two seasons.
The fly-half had his first spell abroad in 2017 when he played for Terenure College RFC U20s in Ireland, returning to his home club of Aia Kutaisi before signing with CA Brive in the summer of 2019, where he achieved JIFF status.
While at Brive, Abzhandadze's first game was against Stade Français in the EPCR Challenge Cup, but would only be called up for 26 games over the course of three seasons, exiting in the summer of 2022, taking a step back and signing with the historical US Montauban.
His contract was set to expire in 2025, but the club have allowed Abzhandadze to leave one year earlier, after only playing a mere 18 games out of 60.
He made his international debut in November of 2018, racking up ten points to help the Lelos beat Tonga in Tbilisi.
He has already played in two Rugby World Cups and has added 52 caps to his name, scoring 339 points in his tenure for the Lelos setup, helping his country to memorable victories over Italy and Wales.
Aurillac have been scouting a new fly-half with Antoine Aucagne’s departure at the end of the season, as the prolific kicker will join the Top 14’s USA Perpignan, and Abzhandadze was the one chosen to take up the mantle.
The 24-year-old will prolong his stay in France, hoping to regain his starting spot in the Lelos setup before the next Rugby World Cup, as he faces intense competition from wonderkid Luka Matkava, who might also be heading to the Pro D2.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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