Rugby World Cup 2019: Australia prepare for England with stuttering win over Georgia

Michael Cheika’s Australia warmed up for their potential World Cup quarter-final with England with a stuttering display against Georgia that would not have caused Eddie Jones any sleepless nights.

Head coach Cheika watched as full-back Kurtley Beale was taken off for an HIA just 14 minutes in when he got an elbow in the head, from centre Davit Kacharava, when he lying on the ground.

And he saw No.8 Isi Naisarani get a yellow card for a high tackle, on lock Giorgi Nemsadze, just before half time.

There were dropped balls, missed passes and miscommunications and a lack of control as the Wallabies found themselves up against a resilient Georgian side. They have obviously been listening to their defence coach here, the former England flanker Joe Worsley and leave the tournament with heads held high. They even scored a stunning 71st minute try from inside their own half from wing Alexander Todua.

The Australians had plenty ball but could not find a way through in and it took them until the 60th minute to score a second try when win Marika Koroibete went route one and ran in from 40 metres.

All in all it was not great preparation for a date with Jones’s side in Oita next Saturday whist the English had their feet up by the beach in Miyazaki.

Georgia deserve a lot of credit but they will still have to quality for the 2023 World Cup as the result means they cannot finish third in Pool D which would have got them through automatically.

But they didn’t deserve to see scrum-half Gela Aprasidze taken off on a stretcher in the second half after taking a nasty bang going for a loose ball.

The crowd of locals, with school children bussed in, were hoping to see Georgia repeat Japan’s trick at this ground when they beat Ireland in round two of the pool stages.

And with the chaos due to be inflicted on nearby Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, when Typhoon Hagibis is set to the hit capital the residents wanted their rugby fix because England’s game against France that day has already been called off.

It was windy enough here, and there was rain too, but it was not enough for Georgia, who had never beaten a Tier 1 nation, to blow Australia off course in a clash between world ranked number six and number 13.

Head coach Michael Cheika has been in Tinkerman mode at this World Cup but for the most part this looked like a favoured starting 23. The suspended wing Reece Hodge, captain Michael Hooper and the rested prop Allan Alaalatoa appear to be some of the few not on display who would have claims to play against England.

And Cheika rotated his half backs, again, starting with Nic White and Matt Toomua, the third combination he has used din five games.

The Wallabies ran up against a resolute Georgian defence in the early exchanges and by the half hour the underdogs had made a staggering 105 tackles.

By then White had opened the scoring after the Wallabies had been kept at bay for 23 minutes with the scrum-half burrowing over when the Georgians finally folded on their line.

But that was not the signal for a white flag moment from the Georgians and they were next to score when Soso Matiaschvili knocked over a penalty from in front after 28 minutes before Toomua added one his own.

Naisarani was then carded five minutes before the break where Georgia ran in just 10-3 down and the crowd on their side.

But then came Koroibete’s score which gave the Aussies a 14-point cushion before Todua’s wonder score narrowed the gap but the unconvincing Wallabies held on with a late driving maul try from Jack Dempsey and Will Genia’s run in.