Cockerill eyes Wales v Georgia Six Nations play-off

BBC News

18-03-2025

Georgia head coach Richard Cockerill believes his side have "earned the right" to face Wales in a play-off to decide which nation should be in the 2026 Six Nations championship.The former England hooker says Georgia are good enough to play at Europe's highest level after clinching an eighth successive second-tier Rugby Europe Championship title.Winless Wales finished bottom of the 2025 Six Nations for the second year in a row and have not won a game since beating Georgia at the World Cup in 2023. They also lost to Georgia in Cardiff in autumn 2022."If you are finishing bottom of the Six Nations why do you just get free reign to turn up next year and play," said Cockerill."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 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."
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."
'Wales just don't seem to have the players'
Cockerill was part of England's coaching staff under Eddie Jones and led the team on an interim basis when the Australian was sacked in 2022.Currently in charge of both the Georgian national team and the country's leading club side Black Lion, the former Leicester forward says he is not interested in Welsh rugby vacancies.The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) are looking for a new director of rugby as well as a full-time replacement for Warren Gatland, who left the Wales head coach role during the 2025 Six Nations."I think the Welsh job would be attractive for anybody," said Cockerill."It's a fantastic country with fantastic history, a country that loves its rugby. "But whoever comes in next has got to be given time from top to bottom to develop the players that Wales need to be competitive because I think you look at the moment at players available for Wales, are they really good enough to be competing and being competitive in the Six Nations?"I think honestly, and with all respect to everybody, I just think that they haven't quite got the quality at this point."They may grow into it with a lot of young players being in and around the squad, but they're not quite good enough at the moment so whoever comes in is going to need time - and we know in professional sport the one thing you don't get... is the opportunity to build a squad and settle in and build it from the ground up, which at the moment is probably where Wales is at."