Familiar faces await Australia - Georgia name team

Georgia head coach Levan Maisashvili has named nine players in his match-day squad who played Australia at Rugby World Cup 2019 for their game at Stade de France on Saturday.

1 Nika Abuladze
2 Shalva Mamukashvili
3 Guram Papidze
4 Nodar Cheishvili
5 Konstantine Mikautadze
6 Tornike Jalagonia
7 Luka Ivanishvili
8 Beka Gorgadze
9 Vasil Lobzhanidze
10 Luka Matkava
11 Miriani Modebadze
12 Merab Sharikadze (c)
13 Demur Tapladze
14 Akaki Tabutsadze
15 Davit Niniashvili

Replacements:

16 Tengizi Zamtaradze
17 Guram Gogichashvili
18 Beka Gigashvili
19 Lasha Jaiani
20 Giorgi Tsutskiridze
21 Gela Aprasidze
22 Tedo Abzhandadze
23 Giorgi Kveseladze 

• Of the match-day 23, Shalva Mamukashvili, Konstantine Mikautadze, Beka Gorgadze, Vasil Lobzhanidze, Merab Sharikadze, Guram Gogichashvili, Beka Gigashvili, Gela Aprasidze and Giorgi Kveseladze played the Wallabies in the last World Cup.
• Twelve players in the match-day team play their club rugby in France, including six in the starting line-up, with Guram Papidze and Beka Gorgadze for Pau, Konstantine Mikautadze for Bayonne, Tornike Jalagonia for Biarritz, Vasil Lobzhanidze for Brive and Davit Niniashvili for Lyon.
• Captain Merab Sharikadze led Georgia in two games at RWC 2019, against Fiji and Australia. He is their most capped captain with 42 tests in charge since 2014, and is one of only nine Georgians to play 90 or more tests.
• Akaki Tabutsadze is the only Georgian player to have started in all eight tests this season. Since making his test debut in October 2020 against Scotland, he has played in 20 of Georgia’s 28 tests in this period.
• He is their leading try-scorer in 2023 with 10, including two doubles and a hat-trick. 
• Konstantine Mikautadze will play his third Rugby World Cup after 2015 and 2019, and is the most experienced Rugby World Cup player in their squad with eight previous games.