Another tier to the 6 nations?

mikemac

Sorry if it's a foolish question, I did search past threads but didn't find anything similar.

My question is why isn't there a competition below the 6 nations?
Maybe a competition that the likes of Spain, Germany, Portugal, Holland, etc could enter if they wished.
The winner could go the 6 nations for the next year and the team who gets the wooden spoon in the 6 nations will be relegated to this 2nd Division.

Has this been considered? I'l admit I'm not realy a rugby fan but it's seems incredibly obvious to me. Any opinions?

Diamondmaker

Relegation:

Never gonna happen. The Euro Big 6 will never sign up to anything that puts their own revenues at risk.

There would not be enough interest in lower nations to make matches agianst them financially viable.

The Argies cant get in for similar reasons mainly 1 more nation means sharing the the wealth or the relegated team losing out. The Scots cold be screwed if they got relegated.

Its all about protecting the interests of the rugby old brigade. Right or wrong but they will never sign up to something that has no benfit to them.

Amazotheamazing

There is a Six nations B tournament already, there's just no relegation promotion involved.

Some countries are more progressive than others to be fair. Spain is going semi-pro, with Real Madird and Barcelona both sponsoring teams, Belguim are going on a tour of Argentina this summer (playing divisional sides, not the Arg test side). Teams like Romania and Georgia are slowly improving as more of their players play in France. Think Russia has a fully pro league now, but not certain.

The simple truth is it takes time to build a professional system. Pro rugby is just over 10 years old, you can't expect a team that has always been a third tier nation to catch-up in such a short space of time, no team outside the 6 nations (except Arg) would be good enough to play in it. maybe in a generation's time some countries will be strong enough to make a case for breaking up the 6 nations into a different comp (perhaps two pools of four or five?).

It will come down to money, if the established nations feel there is money to be made, the 6 nations will be altered.

zAbbo

Such a league is already in place - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Nations_Cup_(rugby_union)

Although it doesn't integrate with the 6Nations.

mikemac

Thanks for the interesting replies

zabbo, I don't think your link works so I've provided it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Nations_Cup_%28rugby_union%29

Podge_irl

Russia has a fully profressional league in place and I think Georgia are making steps in that direction - rugby is heavily sponsored by the govt there. They've gotten crowds of 40/50,000 to matches against Russia I believe.

There won't be promotion/relegation in the 6N for the foreseeable future, but one of the lower teams may be invited in at some point.

Oilrig

"They've gotten crowds of 40/50,000 to matches against Russia I believe."

I think if Georgia played Tiddleywinks against Russia they'd get the same size crowds...:D

ozt9vdujny3srf

It would be a good thing for european rugby, But perhaps the winner of the second division would have a playoff against the loser of the first division to get in.

It might not happen but it would be a good incentive for other euro nations to improve if it did.

Podge_irl

There is already promotion/relegation amongst the lower tiers I believe. Germany recently got promoted for example (though I'm not sure to which division).