World Rugby

OldRio

This hemisphere competition is supposedly every other year.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120391469#Comment_120391469

The problem of course that no one talks about is that Georgia is willing to demand their status as a tier 1 nation without accepting compromise.

They sent out second teams for the Tblisi Cup until they decides they didn't want to be on the level of second teams and cancelled the tournament.

They turned down a visit from Fiji to Georgia last November.

Georgia need to engage constructively with world rugby.

pixelburp

Funny how this thread started as a means to promote small little success stories of the sport worldwide ... and it invariably turns into another discussion over What of Georgia? 😂

Problem for this long-time lurker, and mentioned already, would come down to simple economics: were Italy Georgia when they took those scalps back in the late 90s, those where the clamour to join the 5 Nations became too loud to ignore, I'd say we might still be watching 4 rounds of games every year. Easy too to forget Romania's purple patch during ... what, the 80s? And nothing came of that either.

Georgia are a tiny country; have a tiny, relatively impoverished economy; their political situation now teetering on despotism; and if they were any more further from Central Europe they'd officially be in the Middle East. There's not a single economic or marketing advantage to them joining whatsoever - and ultimately that's gonna drive the conversation. It's sad, cos arguably they're now where that 90s Italian team was WRT to ability - but Georgia aren't a G7 nation, they have nothing to give except an occasional shock result.

As another poster said, were Spain or Germany at the level of Georgia, it'd have turned into the 7, 8 Nations donkeys ago. May yet: Spain (and Portugal) appear to be making strides while still having far to go yet; were it not for ballsing up player eligibility twice (right?), Spain might have already had a chance to play in 2 World Cups. By all accounts I've enjoyed watching those teams play, they can play entertaining rugby at times. Something needs to change in European T2, T3 rugby - but seems like too many suits have too much to lose by changing things.