Sharikadze led his team at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Former Georgia captain Merab Sharikadze has been handed an 11-year suspension from all sports for his involvement in a secret operation that helped national team players avoid detection in anti-doping tests.
Hooker Giorgi Chkoidze received a six-year ban, while Lasha Khmaladze, Otar Lashkhi, and Miriani Modebadze were each given three-year suspensions. Lasha Lomidze was banned for nine months. Sharikadze, who famously led Georgia to a historic victory over Wales in Cardiff in 2022, admitted to providing ‘clean’ urine samples to three teammates.
An investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed that Georgia’s national testing authority would alert team doctor Nutsa Shamatava about upcoming tests. She then shared the information through a group chat and organized sample swaps to prevent positive results.
World Rugby, which flagged irregularities in samples from the team ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, stated that Georgia was the subject of “the most extensive anti-doping investigation ever undertaken in rugby.” However, the organization noted that performance-enhancing drugs were not the motivation behind the deception.
“World Rugby’s operating hypothesis was that the urine sample substitutions were conducted to conceal the use of performance-enhancing substances. However, World Rugby’s extensive investigation has revealed no evidence to support this,” the governing body said. “In parallel, there was credible evidence to support the players’ assertions that the urine sample substitutions occurred to conceal the use of non-performance-enhancing substances, namely cannabis and tramadol.”
While cannabis is on WADA’s list of banned substances, its use is only prohibited during competition. Tramadol, which is now similarly regulated, was not banned at the time of the offenses. All urine swaps took place to evade detection out of competition.
World Rugby’s retesting of stored samples showed that the five instances of sample substitution date back to 2019. Sharikadze appeared in three of Georgia’s pool games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Hooker Chkoidze withdrew from the tournament just before it began, citing an injury from a warm-up match. Wing Modebadze started against Australia in the opening game at Stade de France but was later replaced by Lashkhi due to injury. Khmaladze started at full-back in the loss to Wales in Nantes, while back row Lomidze, who had brief stints in England with London Irish and Doncaster, did not feature in the tournament.
Lasha Khmaladze (left) in action against Wales at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. He was found to have supplied urine for teammate Giorgi Chkoidze’s test in July 2022.
Georgia finished bottom of their pool, drawing with Portugal and losing their other three matches. Sharikadze, the most high-profile player among those suspended, ended his rugby career shortly after at age 30 and transitioned to MMA fighting, winning his debut bout in November 2025.
“This case demonstrates the importance of operating a robust, science-led anti-doping programme with coordinated biological profile analysis, testing, and long-term storage functions,” said World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin. “Our extensive four-year investigation has helped identify subversion of the doping control process and sends a clear message that World Rugby takes all anti-doping matters extremely seriously and is an unwavering champion of clean sport.”
The Georgian government is now working with WADA to create an entirely new national anti-doping authority. “The suspensions these individuals have received are significant and send a strong message to others who may be tempted to try and cheat the system,” said WADA president Witold Banka. “We and our anti-doping partners will continue to defend the integrity of sport by conducting diligent investigations and prosecuting violations.”
