Six Nations news: Will Georgia ever compete in the Championship?

Georgia have officially challenged the worst-performing team in the Six Nations, Wales, to a play-off match in order to determine the tournament’s ‘rightful’ sixth team.

The idea of expansion is nothing new for the competition, with France officially entering in 1910 and Italy joining in 2000, but clearly it is a rare occurrence.

Rugby is also starting to get bigger around the world, with Georgia arguably the biggest success story of the lot in going from minnows to 11th in the world rankings – ahead of Wales.

Sports New Blitz rugby writer Charlie Elliot examines Georgia’s case for Championship inclusion.

Growing the European game through expansion

To prevent stagnation in developing rugby nations – those who compete in ‘Tier 2’ – there needs to be an opportunity for proper ambition.

Right now, the World Cup is the only thing for those countries to aim for but, given the fact that it comes around every four years, the amount of impact that qualifying has is limited.

The proposed idea from Georgia would involve a recurring play-off match between the winner of the Rugby Europe International Championships and the last-placed team in the Six Nations.

Georgia has won every Rugby Europe competition since 2017 but, should the idea of promotion be introduced, other countries may invest more into the game in an attempt to reap the huge benefits of qualifying for the Six Nations.

In the current edition, the semi-finals have Georgia clashing with Romania and Portugal meeting Spain, with the matches to be played at the beginning of March.

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Quality key to Six Nations success

Critics of the expansion idea believe that it will devalue the Six Nations as introducing a new team who potentially are not ready to compete may mean that one out of the five games is meaningless.

A rebuttal to this notion would point out that there are already two games that are effectively guaranteed wins for the other sides, with Italy and Wales currently not at the required level.

Italy can be forgiven as rugby is still growing in the country and they are admittedly getting better each year, but Wales are a different beast, currently on their worst-ever run and negatively impacting the tournament with their outright stagnation.

As things stand, there is no real incentive for teams to avoid finishing last, apart from pride.

While no team wants to lose, Wales do not have real motivation and receiving the symbolic ‘Wooden Spoon’ has little impact in the grand scheme of things.

Introducing relegation would force the hand of the Welsh Rugby Union to really make some changes and improve rugby in the country.

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Georgia stranded in limbo

In 2022, Georgia beat Wales 13-12 in Cardiff, which shows that they can produce big results.

They also ran Italy close in the 2024 Autumn Internationals in Genoa, so they are certainly no mugs when compared to the bottom two teams.

Most of the Lelos’ side play in France in either the Top 14 or Pro D2, both of which exhibit a high level of rugby.

And with the national side coached by Leicester Tigers legend Richard Cockerill, they really are a professional set-up.

Geographically, Georgia is a long way from the Six Nations though. A flight from London to Tbilisi takes over eight hours and requires a changeover. For fans and players, this travel would seriously take its toll. 

Also, if the unthinkable happened and one of England, France, or Ireland finished bottom, like in 2013 when France did, that would be seriously detrimental to the tournament in the year after. 

It would not benefit the Rugby Europe competition either as any relegated Six Nations country would beat competitors very comfortably. 

In the end, any changes to the Six Nations set-up need to be approved unanimously, and the chances of nations voting to potentially kick themselves out of the tournament is extremely unlikely.

Tier 2 rugby definitely deserves more respect and opportunities, but the idea recently put forth by Georgia might not actually end up benefitting those who need it most. 

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