Georgian Rugby Union advanced at the meeting of Executive Committee of International Rugby Board at the end of November and it equalized elite countries. Till now only 16 countries were named as rugby country and soon Georgia will become the 17th one, which is a big success.
It means that financing Georgian rugby by IRB will be increased and automatically it means that there will be high level test-matches. The government is guarantee of all these, it has been fulfilling four-year program of developing Georgian rugby for a long time, it will continue in the future too.
There was changed Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs and other chairmen, heads of IRB Gram Moore chairman of committee and our lobby in IRB, Richie Dixon a former manager of Georgian national team visited Tbilisi and met Levan Kipiani Minister of Georgian national team, Gia Rapava deputy of Kipiani and Giorgi Asatiani deputy of head of Sport department. After gaining guarantee from them, they went for meeting Bidzina Ivanishvili Prime Minister of Georgia and before it they made comments for journalists.
Levan Kipiani:” first of all, I would like to thank IRB for such attitude towards Georgia. They mentioned that Georgian rugby has been developed too much in a short of time and they are ready to take Georgia in elite round and equalize to developed countries. We received a concrete offer from them, from the next year, Georgia will host foursome tournament , where besides Georgia will participate national teams of “A” countries.
There are negotiations about holding high level test-matches. This year in November Japan has already visited Georgia and Fiji national team will visit. This tendency will continue in the future too. In the nearest future with financing of IRB several high-level national teams will visit Georgia too.
We will meet Bidzina Ivanishvili Prime Minister of Georgia with our guests, where we will confirm once again, that the country goes on working on developing rugby. Rugby Union should be a role-model for other kind of sports, because it is really the best in Georgia. We have already received a four-year plan with its budget from IRB. We do not see any problem in communications, in any case this program goes on working and it might to increase financing this program”.
Mark Igan:” I am glad that I am here again. It is important for us, that Rugby helps development of rugby. Progress is evident and IRB will continue supporting Georgia, because to our mind, it is an important member of our family”.
Giorgi Nizharadze:” developing of Georgian rugby was mentioned many times at the meeting of executive committee of IRB and at the congress and also the support of developing by the government. The goal of the visit is meeting with the reps of the new authority and to discuss negotiations of the next four-year cycle. This program will continue and concrete topics planned by IRB have already been mentioned.
They listened from the ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs that the government will fulfill all the obligations, and of course we gained concept from them that there will be held foursome tournament in Tbilisi every year. At the end of November IRB will give Georgia the status of rugby country. Relevantly, financing from IRB will be increased and for us hosting high-class test-matches will be increased”.
So, since June of 2013 Tbilisi will host foursome tournament. Romanian tournament will not be annulled and Russian national team will play there from “Nations Cup”. National teams of Portugal, Spain and Uruguay will visit Tbilisi. “A” teams of South Africa, Argentina, Ireland and Italy will add these participants. According to the rotation these countries will compete either in Tbilisi or in Bucharest. Besides this tournament, national teams of Canada and the USA will visit Georgia in November.
Zura Ksovreli
