In the short period of time Pete Drewett has had in his new role as Georgia’s general manager of high performance, he has been struck by the country’s love of rugby and the potential for it to become a genuine superpower.

Like New Zealand, South Africa and Wales, rugby has strong claims to be the national sport there, given the level of support the Lelos can draw upon, and Drewett has quickly come to realise its importance to the nation’s psyche.

“Football used to be the big sport in Georgia, but rugby matches the psychology of the people and their values of respect and support for one another,” noted the 61-year-old.

“The passion they have for rugby is in their blood.”

Key pillars

Appointed in mid-February, the Englishman watched the Lelos’ first three games of the Rugby Europe Championship before the competition, and sport in general, was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then the former PE teacher has been working remotely, from his home in Devon in south-west England, as he strives to put Georgian rugby in the best possible place to do well at the next Rugby World Cup in 2023.

Two of the key pillars of his plan are to arrange for more matches against tier one countries and a 10-year relationship with South African rugby that will help bridge the gap between club/junior rugby and the test arena.

“We’re doing two things: one is to have fixtures like South Africa and France, which we have secured this July and November; the other is that we’re currently in talks about a team playing in the Currie Cup on a regular basis,” he said.

“We’ve signed a 10-year agreement with South Africa – a partnership where we’re going to be sharing coaching and fitness ideas and referee education. We’ll play them regularly at U18 and U20 level as well as scheduling a number of senior tests.

“The plan was to join the Currie Cup this year, but things are on hold because of the current problems. But everything is in place to proceed when we are able to. The more we can work with tier one countries, the better it will be.

“In any operation, you look at people, funding and facilities, and Georgia have established a number of performance centres fully equipped with pitches, superb gym facilities, meeting rooms and accommodation blocks.

“We have a centre of excellence in Tbilisi which is as good as you’ll see anywhere and we’re trying to do everything as professionally as a tier one nation.

“This country is ready to take off and we’d love to bring England to Tbilisi for a test match.”

New horizons

As perennial winners of the Rugby Europe Championship, Georgia need new challenges in a bid to ensure they’re more competitive than their fourth-place pool finish at RWC 2019 – a disappointing comedown after a breakthrough tournament in England in 2015 when they secured two wins and automatic qualification for Japan 2019.

“It’s the dream to be part of the Six Nations and there are all sorts of reasons why it’s difficult at the moment, but Tbilisi would be a special place to host the best teams – they’re fanatical about their rugby,” said Drewett.

“In terms of supporter base, Georgia v Russia matches attract 50,000-60,000 people and it’s a wonderful test atmosphere. They’d have no problem selling out Six Nations games.”

Drewett led England to two U21 grand slams and held a number of different roles within the Rugby Football Union in his 16 years there, before his journey took him to Hong Kong and Wales, in a coach development capacity, via spells in club rugby with his hometown team Exeter and local rivals Plymouth Albion.

‘Can-do’ attitude

It was with Wales that he experienced Georgia for the first time.

“I spent three weeks over there with Wales at the U20 World Championship, so that gave me a bit of a feel for the place and the people at the time. They have that can-do attitude; they are very driven to achieve success.

“It’s a privilege and an honour to work in Georgia, I feel very passionate about the job and the people, who have made me feel very welcome and I just want to do a really good job for them.

“My role is to basically oversee the whole high performance department, that’s the coaching, the national teams, the referees, strength and conditioning, the analysts and medical.”

New coach search continues

Finding a new head coach to replace Milton Haig is also another priority. Haig oversaw the Lelos’ rise through the rugby ranks but is now coaching in Japan.

Levan Maisashvili took on the job in an interim capacity for this year’s truncated Rugby Europe Championship, and Drewett says he hopes more natives will be putting their hands up in the years to come.

“There are some great coaches out there. What would be wonderful by the time I leave is if there are a lot of Georgian coaches queuing up for that top job,” he said.

“A lot of work is going on behind the scenes looking at the make-up of the coaching team.”

2023 vision

A first-ever appearance in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in three years’ time would enable Drewett to sit back and reflect on a job well done, with or without a Georgian in charge of the Lelos.

“I think the whole of the nation would be absolutely happy with that, and that’s the plan.

“I think it helps us in many ways with it being in France because at the last World Cup there were 17-18 players playing their club rugby in France. When you are used to the environment it makes things that much easier.

“But, listen, we’ve got to qualify first; we have got to win the Rugby Europe Championship next year, that’s our number one priority.”