‘We’re not going away’ – Richard Cockerill’s message to Six Nations bosses as he pleads for Georgia ‘opportunity’
Richard Cockerill calls on Six Nations bosses to give Georgia a chance.
Richard Cockerill has called on Six Nations bosses to throw Georgia a rugby lifeline as another championship gets underway without the perennial kings of Europe’s second tier.
With eyes on Paris, Dublin and Edinburgh this weekend, the Lelos are out of sight in Tbilisi, launching their bid for an eighth consecutive Rugby Europe title with a home game against Switzerland.
At the helm is Cockerill, England forwards coach the last time the Red Rose played Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. Now on the outside looking in, the sound you can hear is him hammering against a locked door.
‘Give us a chance’
“We’re 12th in the world, why won’t someone give us a chance?” he says, exasperation clear in his voice. “We don’t want charity, we want an opportunity. We think we’ve earned that right.
“Georgia win Rugby Europe every year (15 times since 2008), we’re unbeaten in the competition since 2017, we beat Wales the last time we were in Cardiff and Japan last summer.
“Japan seem to be getting worse and we’re getting better, yet they have been invited into the new Nations Championship and we haven’t.
“No-one tells us, ‘this is what you need to do and if you get to this point you can get the opportunity’. My impression is there is no interest in change.”
When Wales lost to Italy last March to finish bottom of the Six Nations without a win, even Sam Warburton, the Dragons’ former captain, said there should be a relegation play-off between Wooden Spoon and Rugby Europe winner.
Georgia took the opportunity to publicly challenge Wales to a game, just for good measure posting a video reminder of their historic 2022 win at the Principality Stadium.
Warburton, one of the sport’s most respected voices, concluded it was a matter of when, not if, the tournament expands to seven teams and said Georgia rather than South Africa should get the nod.
Since when, to the frustration of many among Georgia’s near four-million population, nothing.
“Don’t give us a spot, just an opportunity to play off for it against whoever finishes bottom of the Six Nations,” Cockerill pleads. “A fair chance. Even if it’s just to keep us quiet!
“At least then, if we fall short, you can say ‘you’re not good enough, you’re not welcome’. But if we are good enough to beat a Wales, a Scotland, an Italy, whoever it may be, then we should have the right to come and play with the big boys for a year.
“Because financially for us, that would propel us onto another level. And isn’t that what sport is about?”
Change has been anathema to the Six Nations since Italy were admitted at the turn of the century. It is a closed shop, shown on terrestrial television, and it has been hugely successful for that.
But if consideration can seriously be given to the broadcasting rights moving to a cable network, as some have suggested to the horror of many, it is right surely to review everything in the round.
If World Rugby are sincere in wanting to grow the game globally, supporters of Europe’s second tier will say a relegation play-off should really not be too much to ask.
“I hate ring-fenced competitions, because that’s not a real competition,” adds Cockerill, beginning his second year in the job after an unintentionally brief spell with Montpellier following his time with England.
“Last season Montpellier, which is a very wealthy club, had to win at Grenoble to stay in the Top 14. It was the most watched game of the season.
“Remember when the battle at the bottom of the Premiership was compelling. Big clubs getting relegated, Quins one year, Northampton another. Isn’t that sport? To me it’s how it should be.
“Where do we go if people don’t want to give us an opportunity? In the Nations Cup we’ll play Tonga, Samoa, US, Canada and probably Uruguay in a group of six with no promotion until 2030.
“Club-wise, there’s no real competition for us to play in other than the Super Cup, which we [Black Lion] have won every year and, to be blunt, isn’t very good quality. Our players need to play in a proper tournament.”
Cockerill is speaking from his home in the Georgian capital which he shares with his girlfriend. It is chilly outside but the sky is blue and the cobblestoned old town bathed in sunlight.
“Tbilisi is a great city, very cosmopolitan,” he says. “Great food, great wine. Weather surprisingly good. Do I speak the language? Bits and pieces but, Jesus Christ, they’ve got two alphabets. I have enough trouble with the one English one.”
Fittingly, Cockerill was a founding member of the ABC Club, as the great Leicester front row of Graham Rowntree, himself and Darren Garforth were dubbed back in the days when Tigers wore letters instead of numbers and the aforementioned trio were assigned A, B and C.
Cockerill still calls Leicester home and has not come 3,000 miles to relocate in the former Soviet bloc, at a time of war between neighbours Russia and Ukraine, for the stamp in his passport.
‘We’re not going away’
A competitor from top to toe, he is here to squeeze every ounce of potential out of Georgian rugby – believing that, given the chance, this nation can make a real mark on the world stage.
He is under no illusions that they would struggle in the Six Nations to begin with, but points to France taking 17 years to beat England and 49 to win their first title outright after being invited into an expanded Five Nations in 1910.
Italy have been the sixth nation for 25 years now yet have finished last 18 times and lost every match in 12 of those campaigns.
“But they were let in and given the opportunity, just as Fiji were welcomed into Super Rugby with Drua,” Cockerill argues. “So why doesn’t that apply to Georgia?
“What more do we need to do to be helped and developed? You can’t say World Rugby want opportunity for all the nations, actually apart from Georgia.
“It feels sometimes like ‘if we keep Georgia out of the picture long enough they’ll get a bit bored, they’ll drop off the end of a cliff and go away for a little bit’ and that will suit everybody.
“But we’re not going away. We’re not going to get weaker. We’re improving all the time. We’re only going to get stronger.”