Ancient game that says don't cross Georgia

14 April 2012

Forget William Webb Ellis picking up the ball and cheating his way into sporting history at Rugby School. If you want to talk about where the game really originated then pull up a chair and have a chat with Zaza Kassachvili, the Georgian RFU vice-president.

With real pride he will describe the sport of lelo, a free-for-all that his countrymen played before Christ was born. In modern form, it became common for the two sides to turn out at Easter with the players carrying, throwing, kicking or rolling a ball until it crossed the opposition end line. The local priest acted as referee.

Lelo is a sporting passion in Georgia which explains why rugby has become such a popular alternative. Both games require a mix of strength and skill.

Kassachvili, whose players provide England with their opening World Cup opposition in Perth on Sunday, said: "In lelo the ball is too heavy to throw very far and so that is why other methods are used to propel it. The players can only tackle the ball carrier above the waist although there have been recent attempts to change the law."

Patently, lelo is not a game for shrinking violets and with Kassachvili announcing with real pride that his players are "morphologically strong" it is clear England can expect a physical encounter.

England have been studying videos of recent Georgian matches, although since they have only played five internationals against major nations in the last five years there is not too much information to go on.

The Georgians have been weakened by the absence of three key players who have been refused leave of absence by their French clubs. The French RFU responded by banning those clubs from using the players during the event.

There are 75 Georgians playing rugby in France and it will come as no surprise to learn that their pre-World Cup camp was staged in that country. Three of Georgia's senior management are French, including the coach, Claude Saurel.

Georgia hoped to travel with 22 supporters but they failed to secure the necessary visas from the Australian Embassy in Moscow. Even the players only belatedly got their paperwork from the Australian Embassy in Paris.

But the Georgians will not be completely friendless on Sunday. A local hostelry - Clancy's Fish Pub - decided to step in and found an official Georgian Supporters Club. Around 600 have already paid the nominal fee to sign up, receiving their official baseball cap and certificate.

The Georgian RFU, which was founded 40 years ago, could do with some financial assistance to ease the deficit created by competing in the World Cup.

"We will have a loss of around £20,000 when we get back home," admitted Kassachvili. "This is after we receive the money for taking part in the Cup because we have debts from competing in other tournaments and the qualifying matches. We have 3,000 children under 19 years old playing rugby and 500 seniors, but only eight pitches and one scrummage machine sent to us by the International Rugby Board.

"We have some home-made scrummage machines which you can create with an old Soviet tractor and some good ideas!

"The game in Georgia changed in 1994 when new people joined the Union and came up with a plan to give the sport back to a lost generation. Now, we have reached the World Cup finals when everyone was expecting Russia to be here.

"We beat them in Tbilisi in front of 40,000 fans and the experience we will gain here is going to be very important."

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