Georgia’s rugby team stood holding candles before a priest on Saturday to receive words of encouragement all too similar to those issued during the country’s short 2008 war — beat Russia.
The teams met on Saturday in a European Cup qualifier played in Trabzon, Turkey — neutral territory to limit security risks.
Georgia ran out 36-8 winners, but behind the chest-beating before and after the game, the confrontation offered a glimpse into the ties that still bond the ex-Soviet neighbors.
“In a rugby game you can see brother playing against brother. Politics will always highlight those divisions, but you wait and you see that after the game they are still brothers,” the team’s vice captain Ilia Zedginidze, 33, said.
Tensions still simmer some 18 months after Russia crushed an assault by US ally Georgia on the rebel region of South Ossetia in a five-day war.
While Georgia is at odds with itself politically over whether to mend ties with its former Soviet master, its people are suffering under a trade embargo on Georgian products, visa restrictions and closed travel links.
Many say they simply want normality to return after generations of shared history between the nations.
“We respect Russians, they are no different from us,” Merab Khunjgurua, 36, said, who works for a copper exporting company. “Flowers are blooming now and memories of the war will fade. Things are returning to normal. I can’t understand why our relations cannot as well.”
Politically, there is little sign of improvement.
Just over a week ago a pro-government Georgian television channel ran a fake news report that Russian tanks had entered the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, causing panic among its citizens.
On Saturday, buses packed with Georgians flooded the Black Sea town of Trabzon, just across the frontier, after 5,800 tickets allocated to Georgia were sold out in a matter of hours.
The Russian section of the stadium was practically empty. Vladislav Korshunov, Russian rugby team captain, saw no spirit of score settling on either side.
“Today’s game had nothing to do with politics ...We played a more experienced team than we are. That’s all,” he said.
Spectators waved Georgian and NATO flags. Saakashvili’s wife Sandra was among the fans.
If the 2008 war was a mismatch of David and Goliath proportions, the rugby confrontation was more evenly matched.
In Tbilisi cars tore down street honking horns and streaming flags from the windows.
But for some fans the game brought back anger.
“If the Georgians had even started to lose I would have jumped down on the field myself and joined the scrum. After what they did to us, this is an important matter of pride,” David Shvelidze, a Tbilisi banker said.
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
Taiwan will have two pairs vying for the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games’ tennis event in Paris as Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) officially clinched their third straight Olympic berth, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association said Thursday. According to the association, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Wednesday evening the Chan sisters’ qualification for the event, meaning they will join the duo of Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) to compete in the quadrennial sports jamboree. There are 16 entries in each doubles event. Hsieh, ranked No. 2 in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
Taiwan’s men’s national basketball team is set to upgrade its depth in the paint after signing Brandon Gilbeck of the P.League+’s Formosa Dreamers to a naturalized player’s contract. The 27-year-old big man from the US landed in Taoyuan early on Monday, where he was welcomed by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung. The two signed the deal, which still has to be approved by the Sports Administration and the Ministry of the Interior. Chang said he is confident that “the proceedings would go smoothly.” If approved, Gilbeck would become the third naturalized basketball player in Taiwan, following the New Taipei Kings’ Quincy
ONE GAME LEFT: ‘We 100 percent believe that this is the team,’ Kagiso Rabada said when asked if this team could end South Africa’s long World Cup drought A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan at the global T20 World Cup cricket tournament on Wednesday. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56. The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semi-final win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive