Well, the Six Nations is done and dusted and it’s been another very difficult campaign for Wales.
That heavy loss to England became tough to watch by the end, as Matt Sherratt’s side fell to a 17th straight Test defeat and picked up the wooden spoon for the second year in a row. We all know that these are very tricky times for Welsh rugby at the moment, but I think some of the current discourse around where we find ourselves has been quite unhelpful, to be honest.
In fact, one thing has really annoyed me in the last week, and that is the calls for Wales to face Georgia in a Six Nations promotion/ relegation match and potentially give up their place in the tournament.
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Let me make one thing perfectly clear - the Six Nations is not a tournament where promotion and relegation should happen. You simply can’t get rid of a team or have different sides coming in and out.
It needs to stay as it is, with Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and France all involved. I don’t care who it is, whether it’s Georgia, Spain, Portugal or even South Africa, Australia or New Zealand, we can’t have them replacing one of the core six teams.
I just don’t understand why people think it would be a good idea to have promotion and relegation. For me, they are people who don’t understand exactly what the Six Nations is.
How can you possibly suggest a situation where you could have one of the founding members of the Six Nations not involved in the tournament for a year or two, or potentially even longer than that?
I’m fed up of hearing people suggest it as an idea, to be honest. Whether they’re just saying it for attention or simply wanting to chuck a hand grenade into the conversation, I don’t know. But it just can’t happen.
Of course, Georgia head coach Richard Cockerill is one of the people leading the calls. But imagine if he got the Welsh job, would he be calling for the same thing then? Too bloody right he wouldn’t!
For my money, the Six Nations is up there with the Rugby World Cup as the best tournament in the world. It’s certainly the best annual tournament that world rugby has to offer.
What people forget about the championship is that what makes it so special is not just the action on the pitch but the passion, the colour and the noise of the supporters. I was inside the Principality Stadium last weekend and was amazed at how loud the English anthem was sung - there must have been around 20,000 England fans in there.
People really make the effort to travel and these away days become something really special. Cardiff is always heaving on a match day and it’s an atmosphere unlike no other regardless of the result. I don’t see how replacing a trip to Cardiff with a trip to Tbilisi is going to help the tournament as a whole. It’s not just a rugby game, it’s a whole event after all.
Travelling fans from all the nations will have started to save and plan their away trips in two years’ time. Can you imagine a year before all those plans have to change because the bottom team may not be there the next season?
Sponsorship deals and TV rights, which are crucial for the Six Nations and the participating teams, will be difficult to pin down if a team may not be involved the following year.
The idea of demoting Wales and promoting Georgia, I think is ridiculous. I’m all for Georgia and the other emerging nations having an opportunity to play against the top nations in the summer or the autumn, but bringing them into the Six Nations is not the answer.
It’s a bit like saying we should get rid of Wales from the British & Irish Lions squad and have Georgian players come into it instead. Yes, the Georgians did beat Wales a few years ago now, but they have been beaten very comfortably by Italy more recently and I’m pretty sure they would not really add anything to the tournament that this Welsh side doesn’t already bring.
The competition needs Wales in it, it’s as simple as that. If you talk to other supporters from all the other countries, they would all say the same.
Before I’m accused of bias, I should say that goes for the other five nations as well. Every side, in fact, brings something different to the table and are all important to keep in the tournament.
That goes for England too - without doubt, they are key to the Six Nations. They’re playing really well at the moment and, every year, everyone wants to beat them. They are crucial to the Six Nations as a whole - can you imagine playing a campaign without them there if they happened to finish bottom one year? Imagine the effect that would have on the level of interest in the tournament.
The only way I could see a different team joining the Six Nations, therefore, is by expanding it to become the Seven Nations. Even then, I don’t think that would be feasible within the structure of the season, with players playing too many games and issues like fixture congestion cropping up. Increasing it would potentially erode the special place it holds in the rugby calendar.
At the end of the day, the Six Nations works as it is and it’s still a special tournament. If you try to add to it or mess around with it, you run a real risk of it losing what makes it that special. People need to be far more appreciative of what we have already, rather than constantly trying to change everything.
Wales will be back, let’s not forget. We went through a terrible time in the 1980s and part of the 1990s too when we really struggled and were knocked out of the World Cup by Western Samoa.
We’ve been there before, as have the likes of Scotland and Ireland. Italy, of course, have quite consistently finished bottom - although to their credit they are certainly a team that has improved and are better than us at the moment.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Ireland now too - they finished third in this year’s Six Nations and you wonder whether they’re starting to be a little bit past their best now. Could it be England and France back dominating for the next few years, or will Scotland finally get it right consistently?
Whatever happens, will we see more calls for a Six Nations promotion and relegation if any of the other teams start to struggle as Wales have in the next couple of years? Somehow, I doubt it!
