Pulsating end to Georgia vs Portugal

I only caught the last 15 minutes, but thrilling stuff. Portugal were up 18 to 13 and holding a last Georgian attack. Then the ball at the base of the Georgian ruck seemed out but the ref decided it wasn’t penalizing the Portuguese player who tried to pick up.

Kick to the corner which looked perilously close to out in goal. The touch judge ruled otherwise ….the Georgian maul struggled and stuttered, but finally collapsed over the line. And the TMO revealed the ball just got to the line.

The conversion could win it for Georgia and Makava a normally reliable kicker just missed. But he also kicked it with 20 seconds still on the shot clock. So the Portuguese kicked off and won a penalty. Massive tension but the winning kick just missed.

The game ended in an 18 all draw…..nice nobody lost this one.

The crowds were terrific and the players were passionate. There is a lot of criticism about the current WC format which accommodates some minnows. But this game showed its value. More kids will be playing rugby in Portugal this winter.

The best games could be with the lesser teams playing each other. The big games could end up being conservative affairs with defenses paying for penalties.

Nice game, Georgia was lucky at 11th hour to get draw. Well done Portugal. Incidentally Georgia have beaten both Wales and Fiji a few years ago, but I cannot see this happening in a World Cup.

The minnows are coming along nicely.

And then we have the opposite experience in the Poms versus Chile match. Maybe four/ four team pools, with the lowest ranked teams 12 through 20 playing a game at the WC to get into the pools. 

Almost all these sports overdo the WC schedule. Soccer is also guilty. And frankly much of soccer is a bit tedious and tactical. Extra time tends to be more fun, but the players are tired. Maybe soccer needs some kind of short form game like T20…but then there would have to be multiple games for spectators.