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Wales' four-word response to challenge from Georgia
By Josh Raisey
Wales have swiftly responded to the public challenge made by Georgia for a match later this year.
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Five days after winning the Rugby Europe Championship with a win over Portugal in Paris, Georgia posted an audacious message on X on Friday challenging Warren Gatland’s side to a match in Tbilisi in the autumn, dubbing the contest the match “rugby lovers everywhere want to see”.
Wales fell to 24-21 loss to Italy on Saturday in the final round of the Six Nations, completing a tournament without any wins and therefore earning the wooden spoon.
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In response to the message from Georgia, Wales wrote “We’ll be in touch…” on X, teasing fans with the prospect of the match actually coming to fruition at some point in 2024.
Though this would not be an official relegation/promotion battle which has been mooted in recent years, it is nevertheless an emphatic statement being made by Georgia to the Six Nations organisers and the rest of the rugby world.
We’ll be in touch… https://t.co/t4vCfIMTLZ
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 22, 2024
While Georgia did add a clip of their victory over Wales at the Principality Stadium in the autumn of 2022, the two nations did meet again at the World Cup last year with Warren Gatland’s side coming away comfortable 43-19 winners.
It was the 13-12 loss to Georgia in 2022 which spelt the beginning of the end for former Wales coach Wayne Pivac, who was sacked just a few days later and replaced by Gatland.
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The current Wales boss has found himself under a lot of pressure in recent weeks with Wales’ poor campaign, and even said after the loss to Italy that he offered his resignation to the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney.
“I just said to Abi in the changing room, ‘If you want me to resign, I’m quite happy to do that,’” he said.
“She said, ‘Like hell, that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of’.
“But I can promise you we’ll go away and review this really carefully. We’ve already done some review stuff and (we’ll) work on areas that need to improve.”
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In 2025, with most of our best players with the Lions, it would be really fun for England to play a 3 test tour in either Georgia or Portugal. Maybe Ireland could play in Georgia, England in Portugal, Scotland in Spain, and Wales in Romania.
I find it bizarre how often six nations sides play against teams from the other side of the world, and how rarely they deign to play against the second tier of european teams.
Well, Georgia is a good squad with only one local team. Are they a strong side? Yes. But please they need to win not one, not wo games, nor with Portugal, Italy, or Wales. They need a solid performance in years to come, as Italy (almost for 10-15 years before 6N): Azzurri did it after wins and strong performances with France, Ireland etc in the mid Nineties, before asking to be in the 6N bunch. You can’t kick out of the tournament a team just because Georgia won two matches (Italy in Georgia and Wales in Cardiff) in the last 2 years. 6N is not a soccer championship. That’s why even SA is out (at the moment)
I don’t think anyone should be kicked out of the tournament, but you add Georgia anyway.
For most of the past 20 years the six nations has been a five team competition, with Italy tagged on as a development project. Now that Italy seem to have finally graduated to being serious competitors, why not add a new developmental side?