Rugby role models for young Georgia boys tend to have lower numbers on their well-muscled backs — usually 1, 2, 3 — or whatever number the mammoth Mamuka Gorgodze happens to be wearing at the time. Last year in Japan, 20-year-old Tedo Abzhandadze became the youngest fly half in the professional era to appear at a World Cup. Also last year, he was the first Georgian fly half to feature in the Top 14. He is small, quick and skilful — a mould-breaker, according to James Coughlan, the former Munster number eight now coaching Abzhandadze at Brive. “Tedo’s an exciting player, not your stereotypical old-school Georgian who kicks to the corner and lets the forwards beat the crap out

Source: The Times November 29, 2020 00:05 UTC