KEY POINTS:
Ireland 14
Georgia 10
Georgia threatened the biggest upset in the World Cup's 20-year yesterday before succumbing to to Ireland in their Pool D clash in Bordeaux.
An intercept try to winger Giorgi Shkinin in the opening minutes of the second half put the Georgians ahead to the delight of the French crowd.
The conversion gave Georgia a 10-7 lead and only a converted try from fullback Girvan Dempsey kept the Irish alive as they were forced to defend desperately in the closing stages.
The match ended two days of unrelieved gloom for the Six Nations contenders. After England were humiliated 36-0 by South Africa on Saturday (NZT), Australia clinically disposed of Wales 32-20 in Cardiff.
Ireland followed up their unconvincing 32-17 win over Namibia last weekend with an equally stumbling performance against a Georgia side who are proving the revelation of the tournament.
Georgia, who scored only one try in their first World Cup four years ago, denied Argentina a bonus point until the closing moments of their match on Wednesday - and not even the Irish could have complained if they had snatched a win yesterday.
Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan was a relieved man, the victory putting his men equal top of the pool with Argentina on nine points.
Ireland, though, have yet to meet hosts France, who played Namibia this morning.
"We kicked poorly and they ran back with the ball and pinned us down. We showed a lot of guts at the end to hold them off," O'Sullivan said, after tries by hooker Rory Best and fullback Girvan Dempsey gave Ireland the win.
"Two nerve-racking evenings, but I hope they stand us in good stance going to Paris next week," he said, alluding to Ireland's poor 32-17 win over Namibia in their first pool match last weekend.
Dempsey expressed his displeasure with the team's performance when he said: "It is up to the individuals to look at their own games."
Captain Brian O'Driscoll added: "We will have to assess things, obviously we are going to have to need a considerably better performance against the French.
"It's likely we are going to have to win our last two [matches] but we knew we were going to have to pull out big performances to come out of this group and nothing's changed," O'Driscoll said.
Georgia coach Malkhaz Cheishvili said: "I'm very happy. I would like to thank my team.
"I'm really proud of my lads. To try to compete with the Irish, we tried to organise our defence as tightly as possible.
"We also prepared our players psychologically, because without mental qualities we would not have been able to compete with a team like Ireland."
- Reuters
