RWC changes for Georgia

The rescheduling of Rugby World Cup matches because of earthquake damage in Christchurch means the Georgia squad will be arriving in Masterton one day later than planned.

Initially the team was to arrive on September 18 and use Memorial Park as their training base for the week.

Their stay will now run from September 19 to 25.

The venue change has made two modifications to Georgia's playing schedule. They were due to open their pool campaign with a match against Scotland in Dunedin on September 14 but that game will now be played in Invercargill.

Secondly, they were to meet England in Christchurch on September 18 but Dunedin will now host that game.

While in Masterton, they will prepare for their third pool fixture against Romania in Palmerston North on September 28, and their fourth and final pool match will be against Argentina, also in Palmerston North, on October 2.

Georgia are ranked 14 among the 20 teams competing at this year's World Cup and it will be the third successive time they have competed in the finals.

Along with Russia, they qualified through the European Nations Cup and beat Russia 36-8 in the grand final.

The title decider was played in Turkey and about 6000 Georgian fans attended to see their side run in five tries to one.

At the 2003 World Cup, Georgia lost to England 6-84, Samoa 9-46, South Africa 19-46 and Uruguay 12-24.

In 2007, they performed much better - they lost to Argentina 3-33, had a try disallowed and missed three dropped goal attempts in the 10-14 defeat by Ireland, scored their first World Cup win with a 30-0 thumping of Namibia and lost to France 7-46.

And who needs reminding that France went on to tip over the All Blacks in the quarter-finals?

Rugby is one of the most popular sports in Georgia and the team is known as the Lelos - lelo is the Georgian word for try.

The bulk of the current side play rugby in France.