Irakli Abuseridze ( ka, ირაკლი აბუსერიძე, ; born November 25, 1977 in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

) is a Georgian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who plays as a scrum-half. Abuseridze is the most

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

player of all time for the

Georgia national rugby union team The Georgia national rugby union team (Georgian: საქართველოს მორაგბეთა ეროვნული ნაკრები), nicknamed The Borjgalosnebi (''The Men of the Borjgali'' i.e. the traditional Georgi ...

Career

Abuseridze made his international debut for Georgia aged 22 against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

XV in 2000. He has gone on to become a stalwart of the national team and played in all three of Georgia's World Cup appearances in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and has captained the side since 2008 taking over from

Ilia Zedginidze Ilia Zedginidze ( ka, ილია ზედგინიძე; born 20 January 1977) is a Georgian former rugby union player. He played as a lock (rugby union), number 8 (rugby union), number 8, and flanker (rugby union) and was a lineout special ...

. At club level Abuseridze played with

Aurillac Aurillac (; oc, Orlhac ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Aurillacois'' or ''Aurillacoises''. Geography Aurillac is at above sea leve ...

Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

for three years between 2003 and 2006, reaching the Pro De semi finals with them in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. He moved down to Fédérale 1 to play for another three years with

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Fédérale 2 Fédérale 2 is a rugby union club championship division in France. It is the sixth division of rugby above Fédérale 3. Teams can earn promotion to Fédérale 1, and subsequently, to the National 2 and Nationale leagues, and on to the professio ...

with Auxerre as a player/coach. At national level Abuseridze was the first ever Georgian to reach 80 caps and held the record for most caps for Georgia with 85 before

Merab Kvirikashvili Merab "Meko" Kvirikashvili (born 27 December 1983) is a Georgian rugby union player. He started his career as a scrum-half but now plays as a fly-half and occasional fullback and is the all-time leading points scorer for the Georgia national ru ...

superseded him. He is the third most capped player of all time outside the Tier 1 nations. He has scored 8 tries, 40 points on aggregate. He was called for the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

and the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

References

Irakli Abuseridze statistics
1977 births Living people Rugby union players from Georgia (country) Rugby union scrum-halves Expatriate rugby union players from Georgia (country) Expatriate rugby union players in France Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in France Georgia international rugby union players {{Georgia-rugbyunion-bio-stub