Match Centre: Rugby World Cup Pool C: Australia 35-15 Georgia

Australia 35-15 Georgia, Pool C, Saint-Denis

Australia brought an end to a five-game losing streak as they defeated Georgia 35-15 in the Rugby World Cup Pool C game in Saint-Denis on Saturday.

This was also Australia's first win since Eddie Jones took over from Dave Rennie in January with Ben Donaldson scoring a double and tries from Jordan Petaia and Mark Nawaqanitawase.

Australia got their first points inside two minutes as wing Mark Nawaqanitawase set up the ball wide to find Tate McDermott, who sent an offload for Jordan Petaia to score evading tackles from Akaki Tabutsadze and Davit Niniashvili. Ben Donaldson missed the conversion though.

Georgia responded back with Tedo Abzhandadze kicking a penalty goal in the fifth minute before the Wallabies extended their lead with quick hands from Samu Kerevi and Petaia setting up Nawaqanitawase over the line in the 8th minute with Donaldson improving it to make it 12-3.

Donaldson kicked three penalties in the 14th, 21st and 31st minutes that extended Australia's lead to 21-3 before Tate McDermott was replaced for taking a blow on his head. Just as the break was approaching, Georgia were down to 14 players temporarily with Miriani Modebadze sin-binned for repeated infringements as they trailed by 3-21 at the end of the opening half.

Despite being down on the numerical advantage, Georgia scored their first try early in the second half with Luka Matkava sending a looping pass over the head of Jake Gordon allowing Luka Ivanishvili to touchdown to make it 21-8 before Donaldson got the first of his two tries in the 56th minute after assistance from Taniela Tupou extending their lead to 20 points.

Donaldson soon completed his second with 11 minutes left capitalising on the poor defence from Georgia before replacement Beka Gigashvili made a late dive for Georgia's second try as the Wallabies registered a 35-15 victory.

What's Next:

Australia's next encounter will be against Fiji on 17th September in Saint-Étienne while Georgia will be locking horns with Portugal next in Toulouse on Saturday.

Reactions:

Player of the Match Ben Donaldson is pleased with the result.

"For me, it was just providing a loud voice and and a big boot at the back there. In the end, it made me look half-decent so I put that on all the boys."

Australia captain Will Skelton is hoping for them to capitalise the momentum heading further into the tournament.

"Hopefully this is just the start and we can roll on and get some momentum," he said.

Team line up:

Australia: Donaldson, Nawaqanitawase, Petaia, Kerevi, Koroibete, Gordon, McDermott; Bell, Porecki, Tupou, Arnold, Skelton (c), McReight, Hooper, Valentini.

Reserves: Faessler, Schoupp, Nonggorr, Leota, Gleeson, White, Foketi, Vunivalu

Georgia: Niniashvili, Tabutsadze; Tapladze, Sharikadze (c), Modebadze, Matkava, Lobzhanidze; Abuladze, Mamukashvili, Papidze, Cheishvili, Mikautadze, Jalaghonia, Ivanishvili, Gorgadze.

Reserves: Zamtaradze, Gogichashvili, Gigashvili, Jaiani, Tsutskiridze, Aprasidze, Abzhandadze, Kveseladze.