Lelos Stay Perfect: Georgia Run in Nine Tries to Thrash Canada 59-14 in Tbilisi

For forty minutes, Canada could believe. They had traded blows with Georgia in Tbilisi, scored twice, and gone into the break only ten points down at 24-14. Then the second half started, and the Lelos reminded everyone why they have not lost a game in this tournament.

The final score was Georgia 59, Canada 14. Nine tries to two, a bonus point wrapped up before half-time, and a fourth straight win that keeps Georgia's perfect record in the World Rugby Nations Cup intact. It was the kind of performance that does not just win a match; it sends a message to every other team in the competition.

It started the way Georgia like it to start, with a piece of invention from their captain. Davit Niniashvili, probing from deep, sent a teasing grubber kick into the left corner, and winger Dachi Papunashvili was onto it in a flash to open the scoring. Canada hit back through centre Ben Lesage, who took Jesse Kilgour's short pass and dived over, and for a while this looked like it might be a contest.

The turning point came in the 19th minute, when Canada winger Nic Benn was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on. Georgia needed no second invitation. Akaki Tabutsadze finished clinically in the right corner, and the try carried its own piece of history: his 53rd in a 64-Test career, extending his record as the all-time leading try-scorer in Georgian rugby.

Canada replied again through second-row Izzak Kelly, but Georgia scored twice more before the break to secure the bonus point, Niniashvili crossing in the 30th minute and Luka Tabatadze touching down on the stroke of half-time. At 24-14 the game was still alive. It did not stay that way for long.

The second half belonged entirely to the hosts. After Rumball was sin-binned and Georgia were awarded a penalty try, Gigashvili, Kakhoidze, Tabatadze and Karkadze all crossed as the Lelos ran away with it. Canada had no answer to the power, the pace, or the kicking game that their captain later admitted had undone them.

"Georgia really showed us what it means to have a strong kicking game," Rumball said afterwards. "They put us under pressure and capitalised on our errors, mine included. We did some good things in the first half but we need to be better." It was an honest assessment from a captain who had watched his side compete for a half and then be swept aside.

Niniashvili, meanwhile, was already looking ahead. "I'm proud of my team and I want to say thank you to all our supporters who were here today," he said. "It's a big motivation for us and we'll be ready for Tonga next week." Georgia face Tonga next, and on this evidence they will take some stopping.

There was one sour note. Canada replacement Liam James was hurt in a tackle late on following a collision with Georgia forward Mikheili Shioshvili and had to be taken off on a stretcher. It was a reminder, amid the free-flowing rugby, of the physical price this sport exacts.

Elsewhere in the fourth round, Portugal beat Chile 36-15 in Lisbon, Spain edged Uruguay 18-12 in a dramatic finish in Madrid, and Samoa ran in seven tries to beat Zimbabwe 43-7 in Wakefield. The round concludes on Sunday when Hong Kong China meet unbeaten USA. But the headline act was in Tbilisi, where Georgia's perfect run goes on, and where the rest of the Nations Cup now knows exactly what it is chasing.