Springboks v Georgia: Facts and figures

SOUTH AFRICA v GEORGIA – MBOMBELA STADIUM, NELSPRUIT – KO 5.10PM

Referee

Matthew Carley (England)

Test debut: 8 March, 2014 – Russia 34-18 Portugal

Tests as referee: 45

• Matthew Carley will take charge of this fixture for the first time.

• South Africa have a W5, L2 record with Carley in the middle, the Springboks losing the first two before winning the last five encounters.

• Two of these have come on South African soil in Cape Town, beating Wales 30-14 in July 22 and New Zealand 18-12 in September 2024.

• He has been an assistant referee for both of South Africa’s Tests with Italy this month.

• Carley has refereed Georgia on two previous occasions, a 24-7 victory over Russia in March 2016 and a 43-16 loss to Scotland later that year.

• This will be Carley’s third Test of 2025, having overseen Italy’s 22-15 defeat of Wales and France’s 35-16 win over Scotland in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

• He will also referee Australia v New Zealand in The Rugby Championship 2025 in Perth on 4 October.

Head-to-head

Played: 2 - South Africa leads 2-0

Points for: South Africa 86 / Georgia 28 (Avg. score 43-19)

Highest score: South Africa 46 (46-19 on 24 October, 2003)/Georgia 19 (19-46 on 24 October, 2003)

Biggest winning margin: South Africa 31 (40-9 on 2 July, 2021)

First met: 24 October, 2003 – South Africa 46-19 Georgia – Aussie Stadium, Sydney

Last met: 2 July, 2021 – South Africa 40-9 Georgia – Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

Head-to-head notes

• The last meeting in Pretoria in 2021 was South Africa’s first outing since they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in 12 years at Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.

• A Tedo Abzhandadze penalty put Georgia ahead initially, before the Springboks’ debutant winger Aphelele Fassi scored with his first touch.

• Georgia regained the lead thanks to two more penalties from the boot of Abzhandadze but the Springboks replied with tries for Mbongeni Mbonambi, Cobus Reinach, Kwagga Smith, Herschel Jantjies and Malcolm Marx.

• Handré Pollard kicked four conversions and Elton Jantjies one.

• The teams had planned to play a second Test a week later but the match was cancelled due to Covid-19 outbreaks in both camps.

• The only other previous meeting came in Georgia’s first Rugby World Cup appearance, in Australia in 2003.

• John Smit captained the Springboks for the first time and Schalk Burger made a try-scoring debut in the 46-19 victory.

• David Dadunashvili had the honour of scoring Georgia’s first try against South Africa.

Team notes

• South Africa have won their last six Tests, dating back to the 29-28 defeat to Argentina in September.

• Ireland were the last team to beat them on home soil, 25-24 in the second match of a two Test series in July 2024.

• South Africa have won 12 of their last 15 home Tests, with the defeats coming against Ireland, New Zealand and Wales.

• Last weekend’s Test in Gqeberha – Willie le Roux’s 100th Test appearance – was the first time the Springboks prevented the opposition from scoring since Romania were beaten 76-0 at RWC 2023.

• No 8 Jasper Wiese was sent off in the win, the second time he has been dismissed in the space of a year after receiving a red card against Portugal last July.

• Wiese is now serving a four-match suspension.

• Edwill van der Merwe scored a first-half brace with Grant Williams, Canan Moodie, Marx, Makazole Mapimpi and Jan-Hendrik Wessels also crossing for South Africa.

• Flyhalf Manie Libbok converted five of the tries.

• South Africa’s first run out of the year was the 54-7 win against the Barbarians in Cape Town on 28 June.

• A week later they beat Italy 42-24 in Pretoria, captain Jesse Kriel giving the Springboks the perfect start in the 11th minute before scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, playing only his third Test, scored twice.

• In a blistering first-half performance, wing Kurt-Lee Arendse also picked up a try to establish a 28-3 lead.

• Hooker Manuel Zuliani reduced the arrears when he scored Italy’s first try before Vincent Koch hit back for the Springboks.

• Debutant Pablo Dimcheff scored with 15 minutes to go and captain Niccolo Cannone ended his four-year wait for a second test try to set up a grandstand finish.

• However, flanker Marco van Staden scored for the Springboks with eight minutes left to close out the win.

• South Africa scored seven points during two sin-bin periods, after yellow cards were handed to Lorenzo Cannone midway through the first half and Alessandro Izekor eight minutes from time.

• South Africa completed their first Grand Slam in the November Internationals in 11 years in last year’s Autumn Nations Series: 32-15 v Scotland, 29-20 v England and 45-12 v Wales.

• Prior to the European tour, South Africa clinched their second Rugby Championship title – and their first since 2019 – when they beat Argentina 48-7 in Nelspruit in September.

• The Springboks picked up 24 competition points – eight more than runners-up New Zealand – from five wins and one defeat.

• The 29-28 defeat to Los Pumas in round five was just one of two defeats in 2024, the other being the 25-24 loss to Ireland in the second Test of the July series.

• The defeat to Argentina ended their record-equalling winning run of five matches in The Rugby Championship and also saw them lose their No 1 ranking to Ireland, which they reclaimed in November.

• Georgia lost 33-5 to Ireland a fortnight ago in their first Test since reclaiming the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship title.

• Back-row Tornike Jalagonia scored Georgia’s only points through a try on the stroke of half-time.

• Georgia have won the last eight Rugby Europe Men’s Championship titles and have won every title at this level since 2011 except for 2017 when Romania temporarily ended their monopoly.

• They secured their latest title with a 46-28 win over Spain in the final at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in March.

• Akaki Tabutsadze scored a hat-trick in the final, taking his overall Test tally to 50.

• The winger is now level with Rory Underwood in sixth place on the all-time top try-scorer charts in men’s Test rugby.

• By reaching the semi-final stage Georgia confirmed their qualification for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia, the country where their tournament journey began back in 2003.

• Georgia’s opening 110-0 win over tournament debutants Switzerland is their biggest in Test rugby.

• The Lelos averaged 60 points per game in the tournament and scored 47 tries across the five matches.

• Georgia’s unbeaten run in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship now stands at a record 38 matches (W37, D1).

• They won 20 in a row before beginning the 2022 tournament with a 25-25 draw against Portugal.

• The Lelos last tasted defeat in the tournament on 19 March, 2017, losing 8-7 to Romania in the title-deciding match in Bucharest.

• Georgia are currently at a record-equalling high of 11th in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings, a position they have previously held three times before.

Coach notes

• Rassie Erasmus returned to the Springboks head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him up the end of 2027.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• His reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

• Former England hooker and coach Richard Cockerill has led Georgia since the beginning of the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship 2024, after taking over as the Lelos head coach from Levan Maisashvili.

• He has won 12 of his 16 matches in charge (75%).

• The 54-year-old spent a year in the England set-up as one of Eddie Jones’ assistant coaches and was interim head coach in December 2022 before Steve Borthwick came on board.

• Cockerill had a successful spell as Leicester head coach before taking on jobs at Toulon, Edinburgh and Montpellier.

• Born in the Warwickshire town of Rugby, Cockerill won 27 caps at hooker for England, from 1997-99.

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the men's internationals played across Africa, Oceania and the Americas this weekend.

Permutation highlights

• South Africa can’t improve their rating this weekend due to the 18.09-point gap between themselves and opponents Georgia before home advantage is factored in.

• This means that their cushion at the top could be cut to only 0.55 rating points over New Zealand if the All Blacks complete a series whitewash of France with a win by more than 15 points in Hamilton.

• If Georgia can create history and avoid defeat against South Africa for the first time then New Zealand need a smaller margin of victory to replace South Africa at the summit.

• The All Blacks have not been ranked No 1 in the world since November 2021.

• With Ireland not in action this weekend, France have an opportunity to improve on fourth place, although to leapfrog both Ireland and New Zealand they must beat the All Blacks by more than 15 points.

• If that happens, the All Blacks will find themselves down in fourth.

• England, in fifth, cannot improve their rating with victory over USA, given the 19.19 point difference between the teams before home weighting is factored in.

• The good news is that a defeat will not cost them a position, as Australia face the British & Irish Lions in the first Test – which does not count towards the rankings – and Argentina cannot gain any points for beating Uruguay.

• Scotland can only gain a maximum of 0.20 rating points for beating Samoa at Eden Park, not enough to catch Los Pumas even if they are beaten by Uruguay.

• Even though Fiji and Italy above them are not in action, Georgia cannot enter the top 10 for the first time even if they beat South Africa by more than 15 points as they will be 0.08 rating points short.

• However, if Scotland lose then Fiji will climb one place to eighth.

• Samoa will gain one place if they beat Scotland, replacing Wales in 12th but cannot catch Georgia.

• Japan, who occupy 14th place, cannot be caught by any of their nearest rivals – Spain, USA and Uruguay – as they hold too big a cushion.

• If Spain beat Canada and the USA and Uruguay lose to England and Argentina, respectively, all three nations will remain as they were – in 15th, 16th and 17th.

• Meanwhile, Chile will drop out of the top 20, a few weeks after making it there for the first time, if they lose their Sudaméricano 2025 semi-final first leg against Brazil.

• Meanwhile, a win for Brazil would see them gain three places and move up to 25th, one off their all-time best.

• Zimbabwe will break new ground if they successfully retain the Rugby Africa Men’s Cup with victory over Namibia.

• A win in Saturday’s final would not only qualify the Sables for their first Men’s Rugby World Cup since 1991 will send them to a record high of 24th – unless Canada beat Spain, in which case they’ll have to settle for 25th.

• Should Namibia prevail, they will overtake Canada if they fail to beat Spain.

• The Rugby Africa Men’s Cup final is between the two-highest teams in the competition, with Kenya the next best in 33rd.

• A win for Kenya in the third-place play-off with Algeria will result in them leapfrogging Russia.

• Algeria’s rise could run into double figures in terms of places gained, with a new rankings high assured, if they claim the bronze medal.

• As for the other play-offs, Senegal take on Morocco and the Ivory Coast are up against tournament hosts Uganda,

• A number of changes could occur depending on the result of those two matches, with the potential for another record low for Ivory Coast perhaps being the most notable outcome.

• The former Men’s Rugby World Cup participants sunk to their lowest-ever position of 64th last week and will set a new unwanted record again if they don’t get the desired result against the Rugby Cranes.

Match officials

• Jordan Way (Australia) will take charge of Samoa v Scotland for the first time on a weekend in which he turns 30.

• Angus Mabey (New Zealand) referees Spain for the first time when they take on Canada in other Test match on Friday.

• Angus Gardner (Australia) will take charge of New Zealand v France for the second time, having overseen the All Blacks' wins in November 2017 and June 2018.

• Matthew Carley (England) will referee South Africa v Georgia for the first time, with the Springboks looking to make it six wins in a row with the official in the middle.

• Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy) referees Argentina and Uruguay for the first time when they meet in Salta.

• Sam Grove-White (Scotland) will take charge of England in a Test for the first time when they face USA in Washington DC.