Black Lion showed once again that they are going to be the team to beat in the Rugby Europe Super Cup this season after they travelled to Spain and thumped Castilla Y Leon Iberians 54-3 at the weekend.
Iberians had lost 36-18 to Lusitanos in Portugal the previous week, but hoped that home comforts at the San Amaro Stadium in Burgos might help them get back on track in Pool A.
In the end it could not because the reigning champions from Georgia were in control for most of the 80 minutes as they notched up a bonus point win to get their campaign up and running in style.
Winger Amiran Shvangiradze opened the scoring with a try after five minutes for the visitors, stand-off Luke Matkava, the co-captain with
No.8 Luka Ivanishvili, converting.
Soon after stand-off Gonzalo Otamendi kicked a penalty for the home side, but it would be their only three points of the day.
Loosehead prop Dato Abdushelishvili, back-row Giorgi Tsutskiridze and hooker Shalva Mamukashvili scored tries before the break with Matkava converting two of them to make it 26-3 after 40 minutes.
Twenty-eight points came for the Georgians in the second period, centre Tornike Kakhoidze, replacement Davit Khuroshvili, centre
Demur Tapladze and Tsutskiridze all scoring tries and Matkava converting them all as it finished 54-3.
Matkava said: “I think our physicality and a good game plan set us up for this victory.”
Juan Carlos Perez, the Iberians head coach, said: “Firstly, well done to Black Lion, they played well and deserved the victory.
“It was a tough, tough game for us. We made too many mistakes, especially in the first half, and Black Lion were dominant in the contact area especially. We will keep working hard.”
There were two matches in Pool B at the weekend as that section got underway.
On Saturday, at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam Delta from the Netherlands secured a 43-19 bonus point triumph over the Brussels Devils from Belgium.
It was 21-12 at half-time before 22 more points in the second period got the hosts over the line.
Centre Oliva Sialau scored two of the seven Delta tries and skipper
Stijn Albers, the No.8, said: “I think one of the key factors to this win was us just staying calm throughout and staying in control.
“We stayed resilient, forced errors and used the ball well.”
Felipe Geraghty, the back-row and captain of the Devils, said: “It is a tough defeat for us, we worked hard for four weeks to prepare and then lost 43 points, but we will keep building and we have another game next weekend to put things right.”
Delta are top of the fledgling standings while Romanian Wolves are in second and also on five points after a 38-18 win away in Czechia against the Bohemia Rugby Warriors on Sunday.
In the Rugby Aréna Tatra Smíchov in Prague, the Wolves battled hard to come out on top.
Cristi-Marian Chirica, the visiting No.8 and skipper, said: “First game of the season and our first win, I am very proud of my team. We played well and we had a good scrum in this game which helped us get on top.”
Dan Hosek, the home No.8 and captain, said: “The Wolves are meant to be the strongest team in this group and we gave them a good game so we will take confidence from that and build and build ahead of our upcoming matches.”
By Gary Heatly
