Australia secured a bonus point victory over Georgia tonight, winning 35-15 in the opening game of Pool C in what was a disappointingly one-sided affair in Paris this evening. An early blitz from Eddie Jones’ side gave the Wallabies control of this game from the outset, with Georgia struggling to cope with the fast-Australian attack.

Georgia showed signs of promise throughout the game, but ultimately, they lacked the ruthless finishing required to contest this game. Their ill-discipline let them down throughout this game, along with a number of errors in their set pieces, particularly in the first half.

As has been the case so far in this tournament, this game got off to an electric start, with Australia pinning the Georgians back from the onset. With a Georgian kick failing to find touch, the exciting Australian back-line charged into their opponent’s 22. Making metres on each collision, the Wallabies opted to keep the ball with the forwards for a number of phases, before releasing Jordan Petaia down the left blind-side. The centre backed his strength, and bounced winger Akaki Tabutsadze before spinning over the try-line to give the Aussies a perfect start to this game.

Georgia responded with a penalty conversion just three minutes later, but they were dealt another blow in the ninth minute, the Wallabies back-line again causing issues for the nervous Georgian defence. Petaia was involved again, picking the ball up on the blind-side yet again, drawing in a number of Georgian defenders. The centre showed brilliant awareness to take contact before releasing teammate Mark Nawaqanitawase to his right, the winger using his excellent pace to score an easy finish in the corner. A conversion and two penalties from Ben Donaldson, who was playing his first game at Full-Back, gave the Wallabies an 18-3 lead inside 20 minutes.

Australia had blitzed Georgia in the first quarter of this game, the latter showing very poor discipline and a poor kicking game. Vasil Lobzhanidze’s box-kicks rarely went out to touch, offering little relief for a quickly-tiring defence. The Wallabies back-line pounced on such errors and ran the ball back the other way and saw great success from doing so. Similarly, their decision to kick contestable kicks paid off, unlike the Georgians who seemed to kick with no real purpose.

Everything that could have gone wrong for Georgia in that first 40 minutes did, losing multiple lineouts, giving away cheap penalties and their scrum was uncharacteristically weak. Another penalty from Ben Donaldson extended Australia’s lead to 18 points in the 30^th minute, and it was clear Georgia needed half-time to re-group and reorganise. They let their discipline slip just too far, getting on the wrong side of referee Luke Pearce more persistently as the half progressed. In the space of two minutes, Georgia were marched back 10 further metres after giving away a penalty due to descent from winger Modebadze Mirian, quickly followed by the winger receiving a yellow card for repeated offside infringements on his own five-metre line.

It was a disastrous and needless end to the half for Georgia, but they were lucky it wasn’t worse. Following Mirian’s dismissal, Australia kicked to the corner to attempt a driving maul with a man-advantage. What would have been an emphatic and impressive end to the half ended in disappointment as the lineout was overthrown and Georgia could kick the ball out of play.

Despite a poor showing in the opening half, Georgia showed moments of promise. They would look to build on these in the second half.

Despite being a man down at the start of the second half, it was Georgia who struck first to keep themselves in this contest. Determined play from Georgia culminated in a brilliant move into the Australian 22. A brilliant looping pass from fly-half Luka Matkava set flanker Luka Ivanishvili away down the left wing. The back row showed great speed to beat Jordan Petaia to the try-line. All of a sudden, Georgia were right back in this game.

Just when it looked as if Georgia were getting a foothold in this game, they were undone by an error entirely of their own making. Davit Niniashvili produced a wonderful run from well-within his own half and split a scrambling Wallabies defence. However, with teammates either side of him, the full-back appeared to freeze after being tackled by Nic White, throwing the ball randomly away. The ball landed in the hands of a recovering Taniela Tupou, who put on the brakes and spun around to attack the other way. The Aussie pop showed a great turn of speed to power down the field before producing an excellent offload to Ben Donaldson, who had an easy 30-metre run in to score Australia’s third try of the game. Donaldson converted his own try to extend the Wallaby lead to 20 points.

Ignoring the score-board, Georgia had a much-improved second half performance. They managed to solidify their scrum and win their own lineouts consistently, even disrupting the Australian lineout on a number of occasions. For all the great work they did at improving their set piece, their discipline continued to let them down.

From a lineout dangerously close to the Georgian line, the Wallabies drove a powerful maul towards the try line. The effort was stopped by the Georgian defence, prompting a series of pick and go drives from the Australian pack. With Georgia committing numbers to their line defence, Australia pulled the ball out the back, fly-half Carter Gordon fizzing a wonderful pass to Ben Donaldson who ran an excellent, defence-splitting line. The full-back crossed over for his second try of the night, and the following conversion would bring him up to 25 points on the night.

A late consolation try from Beka Gigashvili would give Georgia a positive note to end this game on, but they were far from their best tonight. Australia, to their credit, were impressive, and look certain to push for top-spot in this group. Georgia can take many positives away from this game, as they know there will be plenty more opportunities to secure potential wins in this World Cup.

Australia were much too good on the night, picking up a bonus point victory in the opening game of Pool C.

Full Time in Paris, Australia 35-15 Georgia