Georgia's "historic" game against rugby world champions South Africa postponed
The Lelos were scheduled to face the current world champions in July for their first test game outside the Rugby World Cup. Photos: Tamuna Kulumbegashvili/qz.com.
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The Georgian national rugby team will have to wait for their first test game against world champions South Africa after the World Rugby governing body's postponement of games previously scheduled for July.
Citing "ongoing government and health agency COVID-19 directives", the organisation announced the postponement of test - or friendly - fixtures between national teams during the month on Friday.
Extended travel and quarantine restrictions that apply to numerous countries, and concerns over adequate player preparation time, mean that any sort of cross-border international rugby competition cannot be hosted in July," the World Rugby announcement reads.
Joint statement on postponement of July internationalshttps://t.co/bHfr893tZT
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) May 15, 2020
The Lelos were scheduled to face South Africa - winners of last year's Rugby World Cup - on July 18 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elisabeth.
Dubbed "historic" by the Georgia Rugby Union, the game would have represented the first time the two teams faced one another outside the Rugby World Cup. They first played a game in the 2003 tournament in Australia.
Talks for a test match between the sides were held during the 2019 World Cup in Japan, with GRU President Gocha Svanidze revealing involvement by the World Rugby governing body in the process.
In their update World Rugby said they would work with their member unions from related countries to prepare a new calendar for fixtures for the remainder of 2020.
Georgia's national rugby team will face Rugby World Cup champions South Africa next year in what has been dubbed a "historic" test match by Georgia Rugby Union.
Over a dozen rugby professionals from Georgia are involved in High Performance Academy, a new remote initiative by World Rugby governing body designed to maintain preparedness of the sport for its post-pandemic relaunch.
Domestic sporting competitions have been suspended in Georgia as a safety measure amid the global coronavirus outbreak, with international tournaments and matches either cancelled or going behind closed doors.
World Rugby, the international governing body of the game, has released the first episode of Georgia: Rugby's Next Superpower, a documentary series tracing the nation's "meteoric" rise to prominence on the international rugby stage.
“Georgia are being lined up to replace Japan as one of Scotland's opponents in an eight-team tournament this autumn”, BBC Schotland’s Tom English reported. The tournament is scheduled to be held on four consecutive weekends between November 14 and December 5.
Three matches of Georgian national rugby championships were postponed after players of the Didi 10 premier competition and League One second tier tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Georgian national rugby team's Rugby Europe Championship last round fixture against Russia has been postponed as part of Rugby Europe's suspension of all games under its organisation until the end of November, due to worsening COVID-19 situation across the continent.
Georgia's national rugby team will play three matches against two of the major sides of the sport in the space of two weeks this summer, with the Lelos set to travel to South Africa for two test games against the current World Champions before hosting Scotland in Tbilisi.