Georgia’s women’s sevens rugby team win Rugby Europe division
Tweet 
Share
Georgia’s women’s rugby sevens national team has replicated recent success of their male counterparts by winning a division of the Rugby Europe tournament in Croatia’s capital Zagreb.
The team, competing against 11 other national teams from across Europe, claimed the first place and the coveted promotion to a higher tier of the competition.
The female athletes representing Georgia finished ahead of Turkey and hosts Croatia in the Conference division.
They achieved the result following their semifinal win against Bulgaria with a score 19-5, which meant both the Lelos and Turkey — winners of the other semifinal — qualified for the upper Trophy division.
Following the successful promotion to the second highest division, Georgia also capped the successful tournament with a 17-12 win against Turkey in the final.
Scoring three tries to the opponents’ two, the team managed by Jaba Malaghuradze and Giorgi Maisuradze completed the final one on the last minute of the match.
The women’s sevens team met Georgia’s sport minister Mikheil Giorgadze (centre in the back row) earlier today. Photo: Khatia Jijeishvili.
The women Lelos only lost a single fixture, against Denmark, out of their group stage and play-off games at the Conference level.
Their success was recognised earlier today in Tbilisi, where acting Minister of Culture and Sports of Georgia Mikheil Giorgadze met the players to congratulate them on the result.
The squad of the women’s sevens team is comprised of athletes from Tbilisi as well as the cities of Kutaisi and Rustavi.
It features players Tinatin Papuashvili, Tinatin Sikharulidze, Ketevan Modebadze, Salome Sagharadze, Nicole Galuzinskaya, Salome Makasarashvili, Salome Sagharadze, Mariam Goguadze, Tamar Managadze, Ani Siradze, Teona Chitaishvili and Natia Gavashelishvili.