'URC is the only proper competition where we can be involved'

Levan Maisashvili has explained why Georgian franchise Black Lion are looking for entry to play in the United Rugby Championship (URC). The former national team boss, who stepped down after Rugby World Cup 2023 to become his union’s high-performance boss, claimed that the Tbilisi-based club is logistically ready to make the step up.

Founded in 2021 to participate in the Rugby Europe Super Cup and give the home-based internationals a more competitive fixtures schedule, they have also participated in the Currie Cup First Division in South Africa and have toured South America.

EPCR invited them to play in the 2023/24 Challenge Cup where they only narrowly lost to eventual finalists Gloucester (10-15) and beat  UCC club Scarlets 23-7 in Wales. They also played two Top 14 teams, losing 6-28 at Castres and 3-36 at home to Clermont.

They have now been drawn against Vannes (h), Scarlets (a), Bayonne (h) and Edinburgh (a) in the 2024/25 tournament, but Maisashvili has told rugby officials he believes the URC is the competition best suited to accommodate the long term progress of Black Lion and consolidate the progress of in recent years of Georgia at Test level.   

Before flying to Japan and on to Australia for the Lelos’ Test matches under Richard Cockerill, Maisashvili was in South Africa for the pool stage of the World Rugby U20 Championship and he sat down for a feature-length interview with RugbyPass which will be published this Sunday.  

It was his first trip back to South Africa since his near-death experience in 2021 where he spent a month in a coma in a Johannesburg hospital and was given a two per cent survival chance. Delighted to finally make his return to the country three years later, Maisashvili spoke about the need for the Georgian Test team and the Black Lion franchise to secure more games.

“We are humble people, Georgians, we are not arrogant,” he began. “But the reality is 2022, during the nine months we managed to beat Italy and beat the Welsh at Principality Stadium. Not a lot of teams had a victory at the Principality, not a lot of coaches get to be a winner at the Principality.

“It’s a great feeling and that is what we need, we need opportunity. We need the opportunity to have a little bit more big games. That is why we created Black Lion. Our main target now is we need a more consistent schedule for Black Lion. Of course, we have the opportunity to participate in the Challenge Cup but it’s not enough.

“It is four games, a maximum of eight if you play the final. It’s not enough, we need a more consistent championship. The Super Cup is not enough, it’s six, seven games. It’s not a competitive championship for us. We need to be more consistent and our target is more game time, more big games.

“I would be happy if 60 per cent of our national team players are based in Black Lion but Black Lion needed more competitive games. Our main target is to play in the URC. We need to play in the URC. Last year when we had the opportunity to play against the big teams, we gave Gloucester a very close game – we took the one bonus point – and we beat the Llanelli Scarlets.

“We are a competitive team and if we had the opportunity to play at URC we will have a much stronger team and I promise we will be more competitive than a couple of the teams that are always on the bottom of the tournament.

“We are searching for where we can participate… If you want something consistent, URC is the only proper competition where we can be involved as a team. In France they have a different rule, we cannot be involved in Pro D2.

“But we can manage, we can find the budget (for URC), how to travel, it’s fully investable for us what we need from a logistical side. We are ready to solve all the issues. We just need some permission.”