The Tier Two Nations

The Tier Two Nations - Part 2

23 September 2011

A lot of Georgia’s national team play their club rugby at the very highest level, in the French Top 14. Mamuka Gorgodze, nicknamed Gorgodzilla, was voted overseas player of the year in last season’s French Top 14 for his work at Montpellier, and tighthead David Kubriashvili is good enough to keep Carl Hayman on the bench at Toulon. These are very, very good rugby players who need and deserve the chance to shine on the international stage – and not just once every four years either.

As for the weaker Tier Two European nations like Russia, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine, a rejuvenated Euro Nations Cup – which effectively becomes the 2^nd division of the Six Nations – would provide a huge boost to the sport in those countries, especially if the games get shown on TV. Suddenly sponsors will start to take notice and rugby will progress from being a ‘what’s that?’ sport to one which, even if most of the population doesn’t understand it, at least people will have heard of it and know that their country plays it.

Then there are the lower-ranked countries like Moldova, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. If rugby hardly registers in Portugal and Spain, which are half-decent tier two nations, it is almost invisible in these other countries. (Moldova is actually an exception to this – because of its historical and linguistic links with Romania, rugby is actually growing in popularity there).

So why not expand the Six Nations even further to include ALL the divisions of the Euro Nations Cup (there are 6 in total)? We could have a ‘Premiership’ (Six Nations 1), ‘Championship’ (Six Nations 2), League 1, League 2, etc – much like football and rugby union in England. Each nation would then have the chance of promotion to a higher level – which would mean playing stronger teams and getting more valuable experience – and the top teams would also have to work harder not to get relegated. This could actually help nations like Italy and Scotland to improve.

The same argument goes for Southern Hemisphere rugby. Argentina had to lobby long and hard for a place in an expanded Four Nations, and bloody good luck to them. Sure, they’ll probably suffer some heavy defeats at first, but the extra experience and game-time will do them the power of good. Added to that will be a much higher profile of the game in Argentina, where football is the most popular sport. Playing regular rugby tests every year will get more people watching and more kids playing, which in turn will help to strengthen the game over there.

Now, if Argentina can be admitted, why can’t Fiji, Samoa and Tonga? Some people may argue that it’s just too many games, with too much travelling. They may have a point, but I’m sure there are ways and means of making it happen. These are not rich nations, and they may need some financial support, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

In the short term, the Lions could also play their part by touring Argentina and the Pacific Nations. This would help give those nations much-needed additional experience against some of Europe’s top players.

Is all this unrealistic, ‘pie in the sky’ stuff? I don’t think so. If we want to see rugby union become a truly global game, where international tournaments actually mean something, then something has to be done to bring up the standard of the Tier Two nations and make them more competitive. This will make rugby more well-know around the world and make future Rugby World Cups more competitive and even more fun to watch.

I also think Samoan centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu had a point in his recent Twitter tirade, where he complained about the fast turnarounds for his team at this year’s Rugby World Cup. Samoa have to play all four of their pool games in just 16 days. This is very unfair, especially when the Tier One teams get and much longer breaks – it certainly isn’t a level playing field.

The president of the Georgian Rugby Union summed up the general situation well when he said: “We need more games against the big teams. Otherwise we are boiling in our own juice from year to year.”

What goes for Georgia goes for the test of the developing rugby nations.

Many Thanks to Damian Corbet for writing this.

The Tier Two Nations - Part 2

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