Reuters/London

If there were any doubts about Mamuka Gorgodze’s ability to stamp his mark at the Rugby World Cup after a season plagued by injury, the Georgia captain dispelled them in Saturday’s 17-10 victory over Tonga.
The number eight was outstanding in both attack and defence, bulldozing through for the opening try and leading an epic rearguard action in the final quarter to prevent Tonga from closing the gap.
He made more ball carries than any of his team mates, and his tackle count of two dozen was the highest by any player in the eight games played to date in the tournament.
Gorgodze is well known to French fans after a decade with Montpellier and Toulon, though ligament injuries to both knees restricted him to just 10 starts last season.
Playing in his third World Cup, however, is a chance to impress a global audience and channel his formidable energy into pushing Georgia closer towards the top tier, from their current ranking of 13th in the world.
“There are different emotions for sure—it’s more than rugby,” Gorgodze said, describing how it feels to swap his club shirt for his country’s.
Immediately after the final whistle on Saturday, he wrapped himself in the red and white national flag to celebrate what he called Georgia’s greatest win, only the third that the former Soviet republic has achieved at the World Cup.
The exploit was greeted with euphoria in a country where rugby has dramatically grown in popularity in the generation since it gained independence from Moscow in 1991.
“We are a small country but we have a big heart!” declared the headline in the Georgian Journal weekly.
Gorgodze, who stands 1.96 metres (six feet, five inches) tall and weighs around 120kg (265lbs), initially excelled at basketball before switching to rugby. He played at lock until 2010, before moving to the back row.
Georgians nickname him Gulliver, after the literary hero who found himself a giant in the kingdom of the tiny Lilliputians.
In France he is dubbed Gorgodzilla, a reference to his physical stature and perhaps also to his wild man reputation in years gone by—a compilation of his most infamous punch-ups has been watched nearly half a million times on YouTube.
In person, however, he is polite, quietly spoken and modest, happy to chat with reporters in Georgian, French and English,  but deflecting questions about his own performance to focus on the team.
“We are friends, we are brothers,” he said after Saturday’s win.
Gorgodze’s try under the posts was his 25th in 62 tests, the fourth highest total by a forward, and gave Georgia an excellent chance of taking third place in Pool C and qualifying automatically for the next World Cup in Japan.
He told reporters Georgia is keen to challenge eventually to join Europe’s Six Nations competition. But the immediate priority is Friday’s clash with Argentina, ranked world number eight, for which Gorgodze is happy to assume the role of underdog.
“I know it will be very very difficult but I’m sure that Georgia will give the maximum,” he said.
Can Georgia win? A long pause and an enigmatic smile.
“No comment,” Gorgodze eventually replied, to laughter from reporters, describing the Pumas as “big favourites”.