Georgia go out on a high

Pool C : Georgia left their first World Cup yesterday without a win after going down to Uruguay, but celebrated as though they…

Pool C: Georgia left their first World Cup yesterday without a win after going down to Uruguay, but celebrated as though they had won the tournament by joining the South Americans in a lap of honour.

After heavy defeats by England, South Africa and Samoa, the minnows fought out a scrappy but evenly-matched game to determine last place in the group.

Georgia were slight favourites after an encouraging 46-19 loss to the Springboks last week, but could not contain their more experienced opponents, who scored three unanswered tries.

"Although we haven't finished yet, this is the icing on the cake," Uruguay lock Juan Carlos Bado said. "We were happy just to qualify."

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Georgia captain Ilia Zedginidze responded: "We just didn't recover after the South Africa game. But the World Cup was an excellent experience for us and we will do much better next time."

Georgia were just five points down with two minutes left when replacement lock rower Nicolas Brignoni crashed over to score the final try.

Uruguay end their tournament against England on Sunday. "We don't even want to think about that yet, we have to celebrate first," coach Diego Ormaechea said. "We have an English trainer with us and we asked him what we should do to prepare and he said: 'Just go play golf'."

GEORGIA: I Machkhaneli; M Urjukashvili, T Zibzibadze, I Giorgadze (V Katsadze 59), A Kavtarashvili (B Khamashuridze 40); P Jimsheladze (M Kvirikashvili 40); I Modebadze; I Zedginidze, G Yachvili (cap), G Chkhaidze, S Gujaraidze (G Tsiklauri 63), Z Mchedlishvili, A Kopaliani (S Nikolaenko 40), D Dadunashvili (A Giorgadze 40), G Shvelidze.

URUGUAY: J Menchaca; A Cardoso, D Aguirre (captain), M Mendaro (J Pastore 50), C Baldasari; S Aguirre, J Campomar (B Amarillo 78); R Capo, N Grille, H Ponte (M Gutierrez 56), J Alzueta (N Brignoni 66), J C Bado, P Lemoine (G Storace 78), D Lamelas (J Andres Perez 70), R Sanchez (E Berruti 74).

Referee: K Deaker (New Zealand).