Georgia head coach Milton Haig has insisted that scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze has a bright future ahead of him at international level.

The 18-year-old became the youngest player in Rugby World Cup history when he turned out for the Lelos against Tonga in their opening match of this year's tournament earlier today.

Haig was happy with the youngster's performance and suggested that he will be the team's main man when the next World Cup comes around in 2019.

"He's our number-one ranked nine. He start playing for this team back in February against Germany, and we really just chucked him in just to give him a bit of a taster and he played so well that we thought 'we'll give him another game'," Haig told reporters.

"He's certainly made every game a bit of a winner for himself. It was a tough contest out there today. There were two forward packs who didn't get a lot of decent ball, but I thought he made a couple of good breaks, kicked well, and he's a young guy who will learn from this situation and this game.

"It's all about experience and we've got an eye towards the next World Cup in 2019, and by that time he's going to be the lead guy with 50 caps and he'll be important for us."

Georgia won the match 17-10 at Kingsholm Stadium.