HE’S GOT more steps than a military tattoo, sure, but there is plenty more to Davit Niniashvili’s game. There’s the aerial patrolling. The distribution. The willingness to work. The bravery in defence. Even some contortion if he ever loses balance.
Ask the Georgian about certain skills in his game though, and he cannot bite his tongue. “My kicking is f****** s***!” he blurts back at Rugby World with a grin.
This, to be clear, is the language of a 21-year-old who has an incredibly high ceiling in our sport but who looks at his game differently than perhaps the rest of us do (often slack-jawed, impressed).
And while he may be glib here, when really we know he has been working hard at his club Lyon to get even better and we’ve seen him create a long-range try for himself with a grubber slot an impossibly-long kick from the tee, the dig at his own nudging offers a chance to find out more about the backstory of one of rugby’s most exciting talents.
