Georgia challenge Wales to Tbilisi autumn clash amid calls for Six Nations relegation play-off

Wales’ winless campaign culminated with a dismal defeat to Italy in Cardiff on March 16, picking up the wooden spoon for the first time since 2003, after which Warren Gatland unsuccessfully offered his resignation to the Welsh Rugby Union.

A day after the loss to Italy, Richard Cockerill’s Georgian side secured their seventh consecutive Rugby Europe Championship, beating Portugal 36-10 in the final at Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris.

It was their 17th title since 2000, once again stimulating conversations around an expanded Six Nations and leading Cockerill to admit that his side are “probably a little bit too good for this competition".

While the introduction of promotion and relegation is unlikely, especially in the near future, the Georgian Rugby Union have invited Wales to their capital for a de facto playoff.

Via a press release, GRU president Ioseb Tkemaladze said: “It’s my great pleasure to invite our dear friends from Wales to play Georgia in Tbilisi this autumn.

“After a thrilling Six Nations and Georgia’s seventh success in a row in the Rugby Europe Championship, it’s the fixture rugby fans everywhere are crying out for, so I really hope the Welsh can take up our invitation.

“Of course, we’d be equally happy to play them in Cardiff – where we won a famous victory in 2022. There is a strong connection between our two proud rugby nations, and we have had some exciting contests recently. We are rugby brothers.”

Georgia also posted the challenge on their social media channels.

Georgia’s last trip to Cardiff resulted in a narrow victory for the former minnows over a Welsh team coached by Wayne Pivac, but Wales comfortably beat Georgia in the World Cup in Nantes in October 2023.

Gatland’s side face world champions South Africa on June 22 at Twickenham before travelling to Australia for a two-match series against the Wallabies.

The WRU have yet to confirm their autumn schedule, although there have been reports of matches against Fiji, Australia, and South Africa. And it's no doubt that pressure will mount on the union to accept or at least acknowledge Georgia's invitation.

TNT Sports pundit and former Wales and British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton has previously expressed support for the fixture during Italy’s wooden-spoon run, and reinforced that notion now that Wales are in the same position.

“I was asked the other day whether I still hold the same view about relegation from the Six Nations now that Italy are doing so much better and Wales are not — and I do,” Warburton said in his column for The Times this week.

"If Wales had to play Georgia in a play-off this summer, that would be brilliant. I know it won’t ever happen, and maybe I am looking at this as a fan rather than a businessman, but I stick by my contention that there should be a play-off every year."

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