Six Nations 2016: No prospect of eastern Europe joining in ‘best tournament’

Georgia and Romania will not be joining the tournament any time soon

Georgia's prop Davit Zirakashvili (C) is tackled during a Pool C match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between Namibia and Georgia (Getty Images)

The referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union may be looming ever larger, but there will be no vote – or even a discussion – on eastern Europe’s place among the Six Nations elite. While both Georgia and Romania believe joining world rugby’s most successful annual tournament would help them break into the top echelon of the sport, there is no chance of integration this side of Armageddon.

“This is a subject that crops up after every World Cup,” said John Feehan, the Six Nations chief executive, “but we have no intention of changing the structure of the competition any time soon. This is a closed tournament, by agreement amongst the countries currently competing in it, and we believe we’re in a very strong position, both in sporting and commercial terms.

“Let’s put this into context,” he added. “What we have here is the greatest annual tournament in the union game – the biggest, the most lucrative, the most looked at, the best attended. Every seat is sold season on season, except occasionally in Italy, who were the last nation to be included and only recently moved from a 25,000-capacity venue to a stadium holding almost 75,000 spectators. Why would we want to change any of that?

“As we have the strongest teams in Europe already involved, the only way to bring in another team would be through expansion. We certainly couldn’t exclude anyone already involved. And if we attempted to increase the number of matches, there would immediately be an issue surrounding fixture congestion. This is not a subject on our agenda and, frankly, it is not the job of the Six Nations to provide solutions for Georgia, Romania or anyone else.”

The two most accomplished eastern European nations argue otherwise and they have a good deal of support among those who fear that, without regular top-class exposure, they will struggle to maintain a significant presence at international level.

Georgia, where union is now seen as the national sport, performed sufficiently strongly at last year’s World Cup to secure automatic qualification for the next one, in Japan in 2019. Romania, meanwhile, finished within 10 points of Italy in a highly competitive pool match and beat Canada to finish fourth in their pool.

“We don’t want to damage the Six Nations, but we need to find a formula that makes integration a possibility in the medium term,” said Octavian Morariu, the former president of the Romanian union who now chairs Rugby Europe, the body charged with growing the game across the continent.

“Romanian rugby is more stable now, after the agonies of the last 20 years or so, but the prospect of improving is tied up with the chances we’re given. If we do not get the right opportunities to develop our rugby, it’s difficult to move up a level. We want to offer a product good enough to attract new investment, but to do this we need access to tier-one matches.

“How many tier-one games will we get between now and 2019? That’s a very good question. The international calendar is very full and it’s particularly difficult to put more pressure on the players. I don’t honestly believe we can hope for many opportunities, but I think we need to push for as much as possible. Georgia have qualified automatically for Japan, so who will they play? What serious games can they expect?”

Wasps will give the former Rotherham flanker Alex Rieder a senior debut when they visit Northampton for tonight’s Premiership match. The home side have the England tight-head prop Kieran Brookes back in the front row after injury.