Georgia gears up for historic Rugby World Cup match against New Zealand

Georgia’s national rugby team is gearing up for the game of their lives when they take on world champions New Zealand in their next Rugby World Cup pool match.

The Lelos head coach Milton Haig, who hails from New Zealand, released a significantly changed list of players who will take to the field in Georgia’s first ever game against the All Blacks.

The upcoming battle will take place on Friday night at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales with kick-off at 8pm local time (11pm Georgia time). It will be Georgia’s third match in Pool C at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Haig has overhauled the line-up that remained unchanged for Georgia’s first two games against Tonga and Argentina as he seeks to rest his preferred roster for the important clash with Namibia on October 7.

In tomorrow’s match Lasha Lomidze, Aleksandre Todua, Giorgi Chkhaidze and Beka Tsiklauri are four previously unused players who will start the game, while Simon Maisuradze is another fresh face who will be on Georgia’s bench.

The official Rugby World Cup Twitter noted Georgia’s changed roster ahead of the All Blacks clash:

#RWC 2015's top tackler, Merab Kvirikashvili, is omitted as #GEO make 10 changes to their starting XV v #NZL#NZLvGEOpic.twitter.com/GpeniAS3si

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 30, 2015

A number of other Georgian players have been promoted to the starting line-up after being among the substitutes in the first two matches.

But Haig was quick to note the quality of the team was not expected to suffer a huge blow as a result of the changes.

We don’t think there’s a heck of a lot of difference between the guys that we stuck out against Tonga or Argentina and New Zealand. We’ve worked pretty hard in the last four years to make sure we’ve created depth and competition for positions,” Haig told the official World Cup website.

Both Georgia and New Zealand held their captain’s run – a training session led by the skipper instead of the coach – on Wednesday, two days prior to the match instead of customary previous day runs, as Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium will be occupied today for the Pool A match between Wales and Fiji.

Georgia coach Milton Haig (c) and some of his players attended a pre-game press conference following their training session on Wednesday. Photo by Georgian Rugby Union/Facebook.

The Lelos also attended a pre-match press conference where they shared their views on their upcoming first clash with the famous All Blacks team.

New Zealand are the world’s best team and I believe they also have the best player as their number nine (Aaron Smith). For me wearing the Georgian national team jersey is a huge honour, especially against such opponents,” said Georgia’s number nine Giorgi Begadze at the media event.

Georgia won their opening World Cup match against Tonga but were beaten by Argentina in their second match, leaving the team second from the bottom in Pool C.

Friday night’s Georgia-New Zealand game is being talked about on platforms all around the world; a news story on the All Blacks official website stated the 2011 World Cup winning side did not know a lot about the Georgian team but they were aware of "a very passionate Georgian side” and key players including "the Georgian Giant”, Lelos captain Mamuka Gorgodze.

You can read the story here.