The manner of Italy's two defeats thus far in the 2017 Six Nations has seen talk of the inclusion of Georgia in the tournament, possibly at the expense of Italy, become more prominent than ever before.
Georgia sit two places above Italy at 12th in the IRB world rankings, and after Ireland's demolition job in Rome on February 11th Georgian rugby proclaimed their desire to be included in the competition, claiming that they simply needed to be asked what they need to do in order to compete.
Unfortunately for the players, fans, and officials like, it seems as though the response from head-office is nothing other than to wait.
According to the Daily Mail, Six Nations chief executive John Feehan believes that there is no room for expansion, and that including another team in the tournament could take up to 15 years.
It is a closed competition between the six countries, owned and controlled by the six unions concerned. There is no vacancy. We’re not looking at including anybody extra. I’m not saying we will never change, but right now we are perfectly happy that we have the six strongest teams in Europe in our competition.
Are we closed to every scenario? No, but it takes a while to see a convincing argument — 10 or 15 years. We have to take a good, considered view about what is right for our six unions. They would all have to agree that this is what they want. At this stage, talk of bringing in other teams is premature.
The idea that World Rugby may intervene if Italy's results continue to slide was also rubbished, as Feehan confirmed that they have no input over the
World Rugby have no input into this tournament. They have no control over it, no ownership of it. It's not theirs to tell us what to do with it.
It is World Rugby's job to develop the game. Our job is to run the Six Nations as we see fit.
It all seems a bit cold. Georgia's head coach Milton Haig expressed his belief last week that the powers that be were arrogant, and suggested they should visit Tbilisi to see just how much rugby has become part of the culture there, so he will surely be disappointed with the above comments.
While expansion of the Six Nations was never going to happen in next year or so, should they continue to grow as they have been doing then pressure will surely rise to the point where their exclusion can no longer be ignored.
Feeney appears to be banking on that not happening for at least another decade, but he could be forced to address those calls on a regular basis, especially if Italy continue to ship 60+ points at home.
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