No Georgian national team in any sport had ever qualified for a major tournament until two years ago when they took part in the IRB Sevens World Cup in Argentina, but their qualification for Rugby World Cup 2003 has eclipsed even that achievement.
However Georgia are not coming to make up the numbers, even though their French coach Claude Saurel openly admits that he is thinking about the future and not just this Tournament and matches against England, South Africa, Uruguay and Samoa.
Georgian rugby has improved significantly over the last few years, not least because of the influence of Saurel, who was brought into the fold in 1997 by Georgian Rugby Union (GRU) vice president Zaza Kassachvili.
Saurel immediately despatched 40 of Georgia’s leading players to France so that they could develop their rugby skills as quickly as possible, a path that has also been followed by Georgian referees and coaches in the years since.
Today some 20 members of Georgia’s Rugby World Cup 2003 squad play their rugby in France, a statistic that meant that their preparations for the Tournament took place in France for financial reasons.
Saurel has a French backroom staff in physical trainer Thierry Roudil, backs coach Patrick Fort, team doctor François Olvec and physio Jean-Louis Salomon, while all dialogue is conducted in French.
Not every player speaks the language, but those who still ply their trade in Georgia are keen to learn French in order to open up the possibility of joining a club in France in the future.
However the connections between the two countries date back much further than merely the seven years that Saurel has been associated with the Lelos, as the Georgian national team are known.
The link is strongest between Georgia, a former member of the Soviet Union, and the Pays Basque region of France as they share the same bloodline and physical characteristics as well as a similar language, musical instruments, songs and dances.
Arguably the strongest link between them is two traditional ball games – Lelos in Georgia and La Soule in the Pays Basque – that are remarkably similar and both an early version of the game of rugby.
The connection between Georgia and France has been assisted in no small part by three men - Jacques Aspéguian and Michel Yachvili in the late 1950s and early 1960s and Kassachvilli more recently.
Aspéguian, who was from Georgia but actually an Armenian, played rugby in France with Lyon Olympique et Universitaire and took the game back to Georgia in 1959-60, resulting in the formation of four clubs and a Georgian federation following in 1964.
Around the same period Yachvili was winning his 19 caps for France and, due to him having a Georgian brother, the Georgian people sought information on him in the French team…a scenario that facilitated the sport’s growth in Georgia.
The name Yachvili symbolically features in both the French and Georgian squads at Rugby World Cup 2003 with two of Michel’s three sons playing, half back Dimitri for France and flanker Gregoire for Georgia.
Finally Kassachvili, a Georgian businessman based in Montpellier, France, sprang into action after receiving a call from a friend during the civil war that raged in his homeland in the mid-1990s.
His friend explained that rugby would die out in Georgia if Kassachvili did not do something quickly and, given his love of history and mythology, the businessman realised that the Lelos were too important to be allowed to disappear forever.
Kassachvili organised a match between Georgia and the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France, a match that Georgia won to the surprise of many and which resulted in the Lelos being talked about in France.
Coach Saurel may say their aim is not to win a game but to improve with each match, but in reality he hopes that Georgia will beat Uruguay and, perhaps, Samoa, while giv