After that Wallabies game, made Italy are safe as the 5th team and its the Welsh who need to drop out for Georgia ;)
IMO (and i’m from the south where we ignore tradition and change stuff all the time, so I get i’m ignoring history here) changing to a two tier 5 Nations with promotion/relegation would be sick.
Scotland, France, Ireland, England, Italy
Georgia, Wales, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal
(i’m a bit sketchy on which of the 2nd tier in Europe would be most likely to sustain a 5 nations type campaign, but still).
I also think the Rugby Championship could do with a shake up as well - unfortunately, Samoa, Tonga, Canada & USA have all regressed so much that it would be hard to include them. But perhaps it could expand to a 6 nations with SA, NZ, Aus, Arg, Fiji & Japan. Albeit with Schmidt starting to improve the Aussies maybe the gap between the top 4 and bottom 2 is beginning to expand again.
The 6n is the cash cow that keeps paying. Relegation is unthinkable. Italy for Georgia? It’s just too far. The Nations cup we are in theory playing now could offer some hope, but looks yet another closed shop really.
The tier2 world trophy in Lions years is my solution. This is also then the world cup qualifiers
Great to see Italy hold on for that win. Should keep the Georgia 6n crowd abayed for another couple of years
After that Wallabies game, made Italy are safe as the 5th team and its the Welsh who need to drop out for Georgia ;)
IMO (and i’m from the south where we ignore tradition and change stuff all the time, so I get i’m ignoring history here) changing to a two tier 5 Nations with promotion/relegation would be sick.
Scotland, France, Ireland, England, Italy Georgia, Wales, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal
(i’m a bit sketchy on which of the 2nd tier in Europe would be most likely to sustain a 5 nations type campaign, but still).
I also think the Rugby Championship could do with a shake up as well - unfortunately, Samoa, Tonga, Canada & USA have all regressed so much that it would be hard to include them. But perhaps it could expand to a 6 nations with SA, NZ, Aus, Arg, Fiji & Japan. Albeit with Schmidt starting to improve the Aussies maybe the gap between the top 4 and bottom 2 is beginning to expand again.
The 6n is the cash cow that keeps paying. Relegation is unthinkable. Italy for Georgia? It’s just too far. The Nations cup we are in theory playing now could offer some hope, but looks yet another closed shop really.
The tier2 world trophy in Lions years is my solution. This is also then the world cup qualifiers