Georgian Rugby head coach Richard Cockerill appeared on the highly popular rugby podcast “The Rugby Pod” today and offered some interesting insight into the game in the Eastern European country.

Discussing a wide range of topics, from his team’s call out of Guinness Six Nations side Wales to the future of Georgian Rugby, Cockerill was forthright with his comments.

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Speaking about where Georgian Rugby aims to get into in the near future, Cockerill offered a fascinating piece of information:

“So, Georgia has a 10-team domestic league that is semi-professional and is similar to the Championship in the UK.

“The franchise team plays in the Challenge Cup, and we have a thing called ‘The Super Cup,’ where we play all of the other second-tier European nations.

“So, it’s pretty good, but Georgian Rugby has its sights on joining the URC or the Black Lions (their Super Cup team) in the near future.

“It’s a bit like the Italians did back in sort of 2010 to get into the URC and keep developing Georgian Rugby.”

Focusing back on the Welsh callout, Cockerill said:

"Wales haven't gone well in this Six Nations, and I think it was just to chuck it out there and go 'come to Tbisili and play us or go for a double-header in the autumn', just to see how good we are.

“We don't really know, as we don't get the opportunity to play against the top teams as often as we'd like.

"And, it's good bants, isn't it? To go to Wales and say, 'Come on then, we'll come to you, you come to us, and let's have a crack'.

“The Georgian public love their rugby. If Wales came here in the autumn, we'd sell out the national stadium, 60,000 seats. What a great spectacle. It's a great place to visit, and they're passionate about their rugby."

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