Sawt Falasteen - Georgia ready for rugby elite despite rare Portugal defeat

Georgian club side Black Lion have played in the last three editions of the Challenge Cup, while the national team has beaten three Tier I sides in the last four years.

Georgia play in the second division Rugby Europe Championship, which they had won for eight years in a row until Sunday's surprise 19-17 defeat to Portugal in the final in Madrid.

Their build-up to the match was marred by a doping scandal.

World Rugby and the World Anti-Doping Agency revealed two days before the final that six Georgia internationals had been suspended for doping violations dating back to 2023.

"Definitely, it was an outside noise that wasn't ideal," Bortolami, an Italian, told AFP by telephone.

"I would question the timing of that, and it's an old story."

The issue related to the substituting of urine samples and the forewarning of impending tests ahead of the 2023 World Cup.

The samples showed the presence of recreational drugs, rather than performance-enhancing substances.

"It's something that happened three years ago and I'm sure that whoever made the mistakes, they're going to pay for that," said Bortolami.

"So, it was quite strange, to be fair, to see that amount of noise just two days before a big game."

Despite that defeat, Georgia are still in something of a limbo -- generally too good for the Tier II tournament, but maybe not quite ready yet to compete consistently at Tier I level.

But if they want to kick on to the next echelon, they need to play matches against better opposition, said Bortolami, who will become Georgia's forwards coach when Frenchman Pierre-Henry Broncon takes over the reins as head coach in the summer, once his contract with French second division outfit Brive expires.

"I would say the new calendar system where we just play against Tier II teams from now on until the World Cup doesn't help that," said Bortolami.

"Because to improve and to grow... you need to play against the best teams on a regular basis."

- 'Everything is manageable' -

One idea would be to follow in the footsteps of his homeland, Italy, who joined the Six Nations in 2000 and 10 years later provided two teams to the United Rugby Championship.

Bortolami said that Black Lion, who are made up of domestic-based players, are ready to join the URC if invited.

"There's the funding, there's the agreements, we fulfilled every single requirement, every single request that the URC has made," he said.

"Now it's just, someone has to make that decision."

With the troubles affecting the domestic game in Wales and the Welsh Rugby Union's plan to cut the number of URC teams from four to three, there may soon be an opening in the URC.

"That's an opportunity. Obviously, geography doesn't help because we are not as close as maybe some other countries to the URC countries, but the South African teams joined the URC a few years ago, so everything is manageable," said Bortolami.

As for joining the Six Nations, the former Benetton Treviso and Sale Sharks coach was less hopeful.

"I'm very realistic about this topic because the Six Nations is a closed tournament and there's some financial reasons why not only the bottom teams but also the top teams don't want to run the risk of promotion and relegation," he said.

"A realistic opportunity for Georgia to join the Six Nations is maybe to join with another team."

That could be South Africa, whose professional franchises already play in the URC, or another European country, like Spain or Portugal.

But, "if it's difficult for Black Lion to join the URC, I think it's even more difficult for Georgia to get involved in the Six Nations," admitted Bortolami.

C.Hamad--SF-PST