Six-try Australia beat Georgia 40-29 in Sydney

Australia 40-29 Georgia, Sydney

Australia scored a six-try riot as Australia maintained their winning run under Joe Schmidt with a 40-29 victory against Georgia in Sydney on Saturday.

Georgia were the first to open their account as Luka Matkava kicked a three pointer from a 25m distance after they won a breakdown penalty before Australia responded back with Len Ikitau sending a short pass for Hunter Paisami to touchdown and Ben Donaldson kicked the conversion to make it 7-3.

They further extended the lead in the 12th minute when Paisami and Ikitau breached the defence of Georgia allowing Rob Valetini to touchdown but this time Donaldson missed out on the conversion as the score remained at 12-3. The third try for Australia came inside the first quarter as Isaac Aedo Kailea crashed over after good work from Valetini and Wright making it 19-3.

The 33rd minute saw Mikheili Babunashvili diving over the line to reduce the gap down to nine points before Australia's Filipo Daugunu was sin-binned initially for taking on Georgia's Luka Matkava and it was later upgraded to red card leaving them a player short for the next 20 minutes.

Despite the disadvantage, Fraser McReight collecting an offload from Angus Blyth dotted down to ensure the opening half completed with a 26-10 lead for Schmidt's men.

Georgia were the quickest to get off the block early in the second half as Davit Niniashvili crossed over and shortly Akaki Tabutsadze also followed the suit as the gap between the two teams came down to two points. The 53rd minute saw Georgia's Niniashvili sinbinned for an offside and with Valentini and McReight completing their double Australia extended their lead to 40-24 by the 64th minute.

With 10 minutes left in the game, Tabutsandze went over after going past a tackle from Wright but the Wallabies ensured there was no further slip up as they sealed a 11 point victory.

Team line up:

Australia: 1. Isaac Kailea, 2. Billy Pollard, 3. Allan Alaalatoa (c), 4. Nick Frost, 5. Angus Blyth, 6. Rob Valetini, 7. Fraser McReight, 8. Harry Wilson, 9. Tate McDermott, 10. Ben Donaldson, 11. Darby Lancaster, 12. Hunter Paisami, 13. Len Ikitau, 14. Filipo Daugunu, 15. Tom Wright.

Reserves: 16. Josh Nasser, 17. Alex Hodgman, 18. Zane Nonggorr, 19. Tom Hooper, 20. Jeremy Williams, 21. Nic White, 22. Noah Lolesio, 23 Andrew Kellaway.

Georgia: 15. Davit Niniashvili, 14. Aka Tabutsandze, 13. Demur Tapladze, 12. Giorgi Kveseladze, 11. Alexander Todua, 10. Luka Matkava, 9. Milkheil Alania, 8. Tornike Jalagonia, 7. Beka Saghinadze (c), 6. Giorgi Tsutskiridze , 5. Mikheil Babunashvili, 4. Lado Chachanidze, 3. Alexsandre Kuntelia, 2. Vano Karkadze, 1. Giorgi Mamaiashvili

Reserves: 16. Luka Petriashvili, 17. Luka Goginava, 18. Irakli Aptsiauri, 19. Lasha Jaiani, 20. Luka Ivanishvili, 21. Tornike Kakhoidze , 22. Vasil Lobzhanidze, 23. Tedo Abzhandaze