Pool C: Australia - 46 Georgia - 19 At the last count, Georgia had an adult rugby-playing pool of 300. Yesterday in Sydney they fished out 22 and gave South Africa a genuine contest.
Less than a week after they had threatened to derail England's World Cup dream, the mighty Springboks were humbled.
The scoreline suggests it was one of those "You had to be there nights", and without exception the 34,000 at Aussie Stadium will remember the moment when Georgian hooker and law student David Dadunashvili peeled off a ruck, plunged over the line and became the first person from his proud nation to score a try at the World Cup.
"We always say our rugby father is Georgian and our mother is French, because that is where most of our players are," said Georgian Rugby vice-president Zara Kassachvili.
"Now we have a baby and that is Australian. We don't know how much it will grow in the future, but we call on the rugby authorities to give it a chance."
Kassachvili's call for assistance from the International Rugby Board is a familiar cry among the unheralded nations, but it will sound much stronger given the stirring nature of Georgia's effort.
When Dadunashvili created his own piece of history, his country were just 13 points adrift of a Springbok side who were down to 14 men following the sin-binning of Hendro Schultz.
If winger Archil Kavtarashvili had held the interception he looked set to take soon afterwards and run the clear 80 metres in front of him without being caught, South Africa would have been quaking in their sturdy boots and we might have been recording one of the sporting upsets of all time.
As it was, the chance went and the Springboks managed to clear their heads for long enough to finish off the game.
"We have to forget what happened," admitted defiant coach Rudi Straeuli. "You have to give credit to the Georgians - they defended like Trojans."
There were a couple of positives for Straeuli, notably the performance of 20-year-old outhalf Derick Hougaard, who scored the second of his side's seven tries and finished with 16 points.
SOUTH AFRICA: R Loubscher; S Terblanche, J Fourie, W Greef (Jorrie Muller 76), B Paulse; D Hougaard, N de Kock; J van Niekerk (S Burger 62), D Rossouw, H Scholtz, S Boome, B Botha, F Rautenbach, J Smit (capt), L Sephaka (D Santon 66).
GEORGIA: I Machkhaneli (B Khamashuridze 60); G Khonelidze, O Eloshvili, V Katsadze (capt), A Kavtarashvili; P Jimsheladze (M Kvirikashvili 59), I Modebadze; G Chkhaidze (I Zedginidze 76), D Bolgashvili (I Abuseridze 74), G Tsiklauri, V Didebulidze, S Gujaraidze, A Margvelashvili (S Nikolaenko 74), D Dadunashvili (A Giorgadze 74), A Kopaliani.
Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia).
