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Georgian star Aka Tabutsadze just equalled legendary All Blacks trio
By Jon Newcombe
Unstoppable Georgian winger Aka Tabutsadze has become one of the top 10 try-scorers in Test rugby after crossing twice in the Lelos' thumping 62-32 Rugby Europe Championship win over Spain in Madrid on Sunday.
Tabutsadze's brace included a fine solo effort from 55 metres and put him level on 46 test career tries with celebrated All Blacks trio, Joe Rokocoko, Julian Savea and Christian Cullen.
The 27-year-old has got to the milestone in record quick time, scoring his 46 tries in just 48 caps – a ratio of 0.96 tries per game, which ranks him above everyone else in the top 10 other than world rugby's all-time top try-scorer, Japan's Daisuke Ohata, who crossed the whitewash 69 times in 58 caps.
Tabutsadze scored against Spain on his Test debut in February 2020 and hasn't looked back since. With potentially two games in the Rugby Europe Championship to come – a semi-final against Romania and then the final, against Portugal or Spain, if they get there, Tabutsadze could bring up his half-century of tries on the same day he celebrates his 50th cap.
You wouldn't bet against him doing so because, even by his prolific standards, he is in a red-hot streak of form, scoring 11 times in his last 10 Test appearances. If successful, he'll overtake the likes of Brian O'Driscoll, George North and Doug Howlett and draw level with Rory Underwood in sixth place in the list of the world's best finishers, with the England flyer managing 49 for his country and one for the British and Irish Lions.
Ohata's total is inflated by tries against weaker Asian opposition, coming at a time when the Brave Blossoms played teams like Chinese Taipei. And it has to be said that Tabutsadze has benefitted from Georgia's dominance below Six Nations rugby. The Pool A win over Spain extended Georgia's unbeaten record in the Rugby Europe Championship to an incredible 36 matches, and they are looking well set for an eighth consecutive title and a second under head coach Richard Cockerill.
However, Tabutsadze, who plays his club rugby for the Georgian representative side the Black Lion, has managed to score against Australia, twice in two games, and France and Italy. And even the aforementioned All Blacks trio would have been proud to score some of the tries he has scored, a length-of-the-field effort against the Wallabies in last year's July internationals being particularly memorable for the winger in the red scrum cap.
Tabutsadze was likened to England try-machine Jonny May not long after Cockerill took charge of the team just over a year ago.
“Aka is a finisher, he reminds me of Jonny May, you have no idea what he is going to do but he managed to find a way to the try line," Cockerill said in an interview with RugbyPass.
“They are typical wingers; they have got instincts that they are born with around scoring tries and sometimes they do the daftest things so in that way they are both very similar.”
For once, Tabutsadze was eclipsed on the try-scoring front on Sunday. Team-mate Davit Niniashvili marked his first game as Georgia captain and his first start at fly-half with a hat-trick against Los Leones.
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