Richard Cockerill axed as Georgia boss after ‘got what we deserved’ hammering
Richard Cockerill has been ousted as the Georgia boss following last Saturday's Black Lion loss.
Ex-Leicester Tigers boss Richard Cockerill has been axed by Georgia rugby following Saturday’s 0-52 Challenge Cup hammering for Black Lion in Ireland.
It was the second successive defeat for the Tbilisi franchise in this season’s tournament, and it came after a November for the Georgia national side that ended with a last-gasp 23-25 home defeat to Japan following wins over Canada and the USA.
Rather than see out the Challenge Cup next month with Black Lion and then prepare the national team for its 2026 European Rugby Championship title defence, Cockerill has instead been ousted after a two-year stint.
It was January 2024 when the former Tigers coach agreed to join the Georgians after a short-lived role with Montpellier following his exit from Steve Borthwick’s England at the end of the 2023 Six Nations.
Dismissal
The Georgians were recently drawn in a 2027 Rugby World Cup pool featuring defending champions South Africa, Italy and Romania, but Cockerill won’t now take the team to Australia after an administrative power shift earlier this year culminated in his dismissal following Saturday’s abject Black Lion loss.
The 54-year-old said in a media statement: “I would like to thank the Georgian Rugby Union for the honour of being the head coach of the Georgian national team and the franchise, the ‘Black Lions’, for two years.
“Ioseb Tkemaladze, the former president of the Georgian Rugby Union, invited me and I personally thank him for this opportunity. In April 2025, Davit Kacharava became the new president of the Georgian Football Federation. He has a different vision for the development of the Georgian national team and I respect his decision.
“I personally wish him and his team success in their future endeavours. I am proud of my time as head coach of the Georgian national team. I have created a solid foundation for the team’s future and I am leaving it in a better position than it was before.
“Georgia is a wonderful country with an amazing culture and warm, hospitable people. I gained a unique rugby and life experience.”
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Cockerill’s exit was sudden as he had only spoken about Rugby World Cup 2027 preparations during a post-game TV interview on Premier Sports on Saturday night after Black Lion’s hammering in Ireland.
“The Black Lion franchise, this is our fourth year of existence,” he explained. “We have a domestic league of 10 teams that is okay but needs to improve and this is a team that is bridging the game between club rugby in Georgia and Test matches.
“It’s a really important project for us and look, we have shown it on a world stage, as we did against Japan a couple of weeks ago, that we can compete against some good sides and we look forward to going to the World Cup in two years’ time and hopefully developing along the way even though we don’t get as much opportunities as we would like.
“But certainly in that pool, South Africa, no one is going to beat them, but certainly that Italian game, that Romanian game, is going to be pivotal for us to get through to the last 16.”
Reflecting on Black Lion’s heavy defeat, Cockerill added: “We never really got started, did we, right from the first kick-off that we didn’t catch and it went to a lineout that they scored from. So, disappointing not to use the opportunity to prove that we are competitive.
“We had a big effort last week against Montpellier, and tonight, Connacht, well-drilled, good squad. Obviously not their best team but we were nowhere near in the game and we got what we deserved. You have known me long enough, I am pretty straightforward.
“Just disappointing that we want opportunities like this to improve and develop our game and we missed that opportunity tonight.
“A lot of our guys don’t play at this level. We have only eight games this season and four of those are in the Challenge Cup, so we go to Montauban (next) and it’s just to put our best game on the field.
“We are a lot better than we were this evening, but you get what you deserve and we only played as well as Connacht let us. So the next two games are for us to keep developing, keep working and keep improving our players.
“This is a platform for our domestic guys to improve their game and understand what it is like to play in these environments. Connacht are a decent URC team.
“Not their strongest team absolutely bashed us tonight, so we have got a few lessons to learn and to learn them quickly because if we don’t, we won’t improve, and this is about improving, not about winning. It’s about developing and improving our players.”
