Six Nations: Georgia coach Richard Cockerill wants Wales play-off

Georgia have risen to 11th in World Rugby’s global rankings – one place above Wales, who have dropped to their lowest-ever position after 17 consecutive Test defeats.

The east European side have now won 17 second-tier titles and Cockerill says they need a greater challenge.

“We feel that we are probably a little bit too strong for this tournament although the other teams are improving especially Spain and Romania, but for us to improve we need to play at a tougher level,” the 54-year-old told the BBC Radio Wales Breakfast programme.

“We need to go and get challenged and we need to lose games. We need to lose games to know what it feels like to play at the level that the Six Nations is at, as Italy had that opportunity in the early 2000s.

“We feel that we’ve earned the right, not to be given that place, we want the opportunity to prove that potentially we’re good enough to compete on a regular basis at that level.”

However, Cockerill admitted the prospect of a play-off for a Six Nations place in the near future is unlikely.

“I don’t think so. If you’re in the Six Nations you wouldn’t want to be voting for that type of play-off would you because it might be you and the ramifications of not being in the Six Nations, from a rugby point of view but also from a financial point of view, would be very, very difficult.

“We don’t want to just be given a spot and then we turn up and we’re not good enough. We want the opportunity to prove that we can compete, so surely that’s logical that we get the opportunity to have a play-off.

“It’s a bit like the Championship football club gets into the Premiership isn’t it, you know it would be the richest game in world rugby, Georgia versus Wales at some point in the near future to see who plays in the Six Nations for the next tournament, now that’s jeopardy isn’t it?

“That would be a game people would want to watch and the money involved and the profile involved for Georgian rugby would catapult us into a completely different sphere if we were good enough to be able to beat whoever finishes bottom.

“And if we lose, well hey fair and square we come back, we re-group, we keep developing and we fight for the opportunity to do that again. I don’t see that as an unreasonable request in the world that we live in.”