![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/logo-georgia-thumbnail.png\"){kind=logo}
Current World Ranking: 11<\/a> (74.69 points)2025-07-19 \u2013 South Africa 55, Georgia 10 (Nelspruit)
2025-07-11 \u2013 Cheetahs 24, Georgia 20 (Bloemfontein)
2025-07-05 \u2013 Georgia 5, Ireland 34 (Tbilisi)
2025-03-16 \u2013 Georgia 46, Spain 28 (Tbilisi)
2025-03-02 \u2013 Georgia 43, Romania 5 (Tbilisi)<\/p>\n
1 2 3 8 10 11 12 4 8 10 11 12 14 Richard Cockerill has refreshed his lineup following the loss to the Springboks in July\u2026 rotation in the front row sees the return of the experienced Beka Gigashvili at tighthead prop, while outstanding loose forward Beka Gorgodze is back after missing the mid-year tour and takes over the captaincy from Beka Saghinadze \u201cYou could look at that game and say everything went wrong, but there are some things that became very clear. Scotland was clinical and exploited a couple areas, and exploited them a number of times. So there are now some common elements that we can take away, where we can show up going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to find the fellas, bring them together, and just keep focusing on what we need to, come in tight and stand together. Don\u2019t let the highs get too high and the lows get too low. You don\u2019t find those up and downs affect you as much as maybe people think.\u201d<\/p>\n Near perfect conditions await with sunshine and almost no wind to speak of. The Lelos are known for their powerful scrum and direct play from the forwards, and feature a very powerful loose forward trio. Much of the size plays in France, and there is no shortage of top level experience. The Eagles, frankly, have it all to do and will be crossing their fingers there are no backline injuries. The Lelos were 15 points better in their last meeting and a similar margin would be a relief for USA fans after last week\u2019s showing. Georgia are clear favorites in Batumi.<\/p>\n Replacements: 16 Vano Karkadze, 17 Giorgi Tetrashvili, 18 Luka Japaridze, 19 Demur Epremidze, 20 Ilia Spanderashvili, 21 Gela Aprasidze, 22 Luka Matkava, 23 Demur Tapladze<\/p>\n Replacements: 16 Mike Sosene-Feagai, 17 Payton Telea-Ilalio, 18 Tonga Kofe, 19 Brandon Harvey, 20 Nafi Ma\u2019afu, 21 Vili Helu, 22 Christian Poidevin, 23 Michael Baska<\/p>\n Date: Saturday, November 8 Referee: Luke Pearce (England) HEAD-TO-HEAD (7): ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logo-usa-thumbnailx.png\"){kind=logo}
Current World Ranking: 15<\/a> (67.40 points)
2025-11-01 \u2013 Scotland 85, USA 0 (Edinburgh)
2025-09-14 \u2013 USA 29, Samoa 13 (Denver)
2025-09-06 \u2013 USA 21, Japan 47 (Sacramento)
2025-08-22 \u2013 Canada 34, USA 20 (Calgary)
2025-07-19 \u2013 USA 5, England 40 (Washington DC)<\/p>\n
\nIN
\nOUT<\/p>\n
\nDato Abdushelishvili
\nGiorgi Akhaladze<\/p>\n
\nIrakli Kvatadze
\nVano Karkadze<\/p>\n
\nBeka Gigashvili
\nIrakli Aptsiauri<\/p>\n
\nBeka Gorgodze
\nIlia Spanderashvili<\/p>\n
\nTedo Abzhandadze
\nLuka Matkava<\/p>\n
\nGeorges Shvelidze
\nSandro Todua<\/p>\n
\nTornike Kakhoidze
\nDemur Tapladze<\/p>\n
\nIN
\nOUT<\/p>\n
\nTevita Naqali
\nVili Helu<\/p>\n
\nMakeen Alikhan
\nCory Daniel<\/p>\n
\nLuke Carty
\nChristopher Hilsenbeck<\/p>\n
\nRufus McLean
\nErich Storti<\/p>\n
\nTavite Lopeti
\nTommaso Boni<\/p>\n
\nMark O\u2019Keeffe
\nMitch Wilson<\/p>\n
\nTedo Abzhandadze will get a chance to reclaim the No10 shirt from the promising Luka Matkava, and it\u2019s an otherwise full strength Georgian backline featuring world class fullback Davit Niniashvili
\nScott Lawrence is opting for a bigger pack this week with Tevita Naqali coming in at lock and Marno Redelinghuys switching to the blindside flank\u2026 Makeen Alikhan comes into the starting side but instead of his more familiar flank position he\u2019ll be at the back of the scrum
\nTavite Lopeti was the only USA player to emerge with credit after the Scottish disaster, and he is rewarded with a start in the midfield\u2026 the wings are swapped out this week with Toby Fricker switching to fullback
\nit\u2019s a highly unusual 7-1 split on the bench for the Eagles, with Michael Baska the only back reserve\u2026 he is primarily a scrumhalf but is also comfortable in the back three\u2026 there is no obvious flyhalf replacement
\nNafi Ma\u2019afu makes his long-awaited debut but the Montauban lock or No8 will have to wait among the reserves\u2026 23-year-old second row Brandon Harvey is also in line for a first test cap<\/p>\n Scott Lawrence<\/a>\u00a0(Head Coach)<\/p>\n Jason Damm<\/a> (Captain)<\/p>\n
GEORGIA
1 Dato Abdushelishvili, 2 Irakli Kvatadze, 3 Beka Gigashvili, 4 Mikheil Babunashvili, 5 Lado Chachanidze, 6 Luka Ivanishvili, 7 Beka Saghinadze, 8 Beka Gorgadze (capt.), 9 Vaso Lobzhanidze, 10 Tedo Abzhandadze, 11 Georges Shvelidze, 12 Tornike Kakhoidze, 13 Giorgi Kveseladze, 14 Akaki Tabutsadze, 15 Davit Niniashvili<\/p>\n
USA
1 Ezekiel Lindenmuth, 2 Kaleb Geiger, 3 Pono Davis, 4 Tevita Naqali, 5 Jason Damm (capt.), 6 Marno Redelinghuys, 7 Paddy Ryan, 8 Makeen Alikhan, 9 Ruben de Haas, 10 Luke Carty, 11 Rufus McLean, 12 Tavite Lopeti, 13 Dom Besag, 14 Mark O\u2019Keeffe, 15 Toby Fricker<\/p>\n
Venue: Adjarabet Arena, Batumi
Kickoff: 16:00 local (04:00 Pacific, 07:00 Eastern)
Weather Forecast: sunny, 64\u00b0F (18\u00b0C), wind SW 3-5mph (5-8km\/h)
Broadcasts: Paramount+<\/a> (USA), DAZN<\/a> (Canada), RugbyPass TV<\/a><\/p>\n
Assistants: Adam Leal (England) & George Selwood (England)
TMO: Dan Jones (England)<\/p>\n\u00a0Georgia 4, USA 3
2023-08-19 \u2013 Georgia 22, USA 7 (Tbilisi)
2017-11-25 \u2013 Georgia 21, USA 20 (Tbilisi)
2017-06-17 \u2013 USA 17, Georgia 21 (Atlanta)
2013-11-16 \u2013 Georgia 23, USA 25 (Rustavi)
2012-06-17 \u2013 USA 36, Georgia 20 (Denver)
2009-11-27 \u2013 Georgia 19, USA 17 (Tbilisi)
2009-06-21 \u2013 USA 31, Georgia 13 (Denver)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next stop for the USA on their European tour is Georgia, where the Lelos await to open their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-269339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}