Beka Saghinadze

Beka Saghinadze was man of the match against Toulouse in October 2021, three months into his first season at Lyon. He scored a try, made twelve tackles and carried thirty-nine metres from twelve runs.

Flanker, 1.91m and 110kg, born in Bolnisi. He has 57 caps for Georgia, 51 of them starts, and has won the European Championship six times, in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025.

Six European titles in seven years is a Georgian generation’s whole story: dominant in their own competition, and still arguing to be let into a bigger one.

He started at twelve with Lelo Saracens in Tbilisi, having wrestled as a boy and chosen rugby. Georgia took him to the Under-18 European Championship in 2015, where they reached the final, and again in 2016, and he played two junior world championships either side of his Didi 10 debut for Lelo.

He moved to France after the second of those tournaments, into the Aurillac academy, and came off the bench against Bayonne in December 2018 for his first Pro D2 match.

His first senior cap came on 9 February 2019 against Romania. He was in the World Cup squad by that September and played four matches in Japan. His first international try came against Portugal in early 2020, and he started all four Autumn Nations Cup games that year, scoring twice against Fiji. Lyon signed him on three years off the back of it.

He has 25 points in all, from five tries, and has played two World Cups, in 2019 and 2023.

Romeo Gontineac, who coached him at Aurillac, called him generous and above all electric, and said he had a feel for the game.

Lyon lost the Challenge Cup final in 2025 with him in the back row, and Georgia were beaten European finalists in 2026.