Gorgodze try gives Georgia WC win

Georgia openside flanker Mamuka Gorgodze scored his side’s only try as they won just their second rugby World Cup match when they beat Romania 25-9 in their Pool B match at Arena Manawatu on Wednesday.

The loss consigns the Romanians to bottom place in their pool and marks only the second time in their seven World Cup appearances they have failed to win a match at the tournament.

Flyhalf Merab Kvirikashvili slotted 17 points with the boot from five penalties and the conversion of Gorgodze’s try for the Georgians, whose only other World Cup victory was a 30-0 win over Namibia at the 2007 tournament in France.

Replacement fullback Malkhaz Unrjukashvili added another penalty after Kvirikashvili was replaced with less than 10 minutes remaining, while Romania scored three penalties to flyhalf Marin Danut Dumbrava (two) and replacement fullback Florin Adrian Vlaicu.

Banter on the menu ahead of Ireland-Italy clash

Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni and Ireland fullback Geordan Murphy are rugby club mates and business partners so with their nations due to meet in a pivotal World Cup clash on Sunday they have wasted little time in winding each other up.

“He’s been texting me. The closer the game gets, I’m receiving more and more text messages from him,” Murphy told reporters on Wednesday.

“He swears a lot at me in Italian and he’s trying to teach me all the bad words. I’m not going to repeat them.”

The two men, team mates at English club Leicester, are co-owners of an Italian restaurant in the English midlands and the lean Murphy says he is well aware of his giant, shaggy-haired friend’s capacity for food.

“I’m thinking of leaving some baskets of chips in the corners,” he said. “That should do it.

The amount he eats, it should distract him quite nicely. “If you look at the shape of both of us, I tend to drink a lot of water and he tends to eat a lot of the food.”

For all the banter, Ireland know that Castrogiovanni, who was immense again in their front-row demolition of the United States on Tuesday, is vital to Italian hopes on Sunday.

Scots look to local support for English clash

Scotland are hoping to draw on 140 years of rugby rivalry and more than a little local support when they take on England in the first ever World Cup match between the countries at a neutral venue this weekend.

The best chance the Scots have of reaching the quarter-finals is to beat the 2003 world champions by at least eight points at Eden Park on Saturday and hope Argentina run in four tries in a victory over Georgia in the final Pool B match on Sunday.

With recent form being very much against them achieving their goal, the Scots are looking for every edge they can get - including the support of the large number of New Zealanders with Scottish heritage.

“I dare say at the weekend, the Scottish support is going to be more vocal than the English support,” defence coach Graham Steadman told reporters at the team hotel on Wednesday..

“That’s massive. It gives everybody a lift... we’re going to try to energise the crowd by our performance and if you get that right, you’re on a crest a wave and everything falls into place for you. “I didn’t hear the Argentineans until the last two minutes of the match at the weekend.” Reuters