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2024 Guinness Six Nations
Italy?
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<blockquote data-quote="andysimcoe" data-source="post: 928993" data-attributes="member: 79218"><p>If I were an Italian fan my realistic expectations would be to win 1 game, any game and not lose by too much at Scotland and aim for the win. While I'm a Scotland fan, the win in 2015 was probably their best away win - it was a battle for the wooden spoon back then though. It's not enough to get 1 win and get 5th now - especially if it's like 2018 and England is 5th.</p><p></p><p>As for their place in the tournament the wordage I have seen is slightly different these days, it used to be "The top 6 nations in Europe", obviously as said Georgia have managed to pass Italy in world rankings, however, in the late 90's ~97? Italy were ranked higher than the home nations, only France were ranked higher from the 5 nations. Georgia year in year out win the Rugby Europe Championship, Romania at times have challenged but not really recently. Other 2nd/3rd tier teams like Spain, Germany and Russia aren't beating Georgia and Italy comfortably beat them recently.</p><p></p><p>I personally wouldn't want to see it drop back to a 5 Nations and there's no team that can realistically compete as well as Italy did when they joined - so I don't know if the argument of where might Georgia or Romania be if they had 20 years of 6 Nations money, holds much. The Georgian team hasn't been badly funded, I believe privately. Though sure, a nation like Georgia would certainly benefit.</p><p></p><p>I think ultimately we're in the professional era of rugby but it's still in its infancy. Players and teams at club level are wanting more and more money, many teams losing money. There's absolutely no way the championship will want to lose a country like Italy to be replaced with the likes of Georgia. Purely due to sponsorship and brand deals. It's just not as lucrative, if the tier 1 European championship (6N) wasn't ring fenced and had promotion / relegation like the lower tiers, I think this would put some money at risk.</p><p></p><p>Now, if you had Germany and Spain at the heels of Italy, you can absolutely bet they'd be approached with a 2-3 year plan of bringing them into the top tier.</p><p></p><p>Oh and part of what makes the 6Ns what is is, purely IMO is the ease of travel between the nations so many fans do go. I'm not sure we'd see many going as far as Georgia on an annual basis but I'd like to be wrong.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="andysimcoe, post: 928993, member: 79218"] If I were an Italian fan my realistic expectations would be to win 1 game, any game and not lose by too much at Scotland and aim for the win. While I'm a Scotland fan, the win in 2015 was probably their best away win - it was a battle for the wooden spoon back then though. It's not enough to get 1 win and get 5th now - especially if it's like 2018 and England is 5th. As for their place in the tournament the wordage I have seen is slightly different these days, it used to be "The top 6 nations in Europe", obviously as said Georgia have managed to pass Italy in world rankings, however, in the late 90's ~97? Italy were ranked higher than the home nations, only France were ranked higher from the 5 nations. Georgia year in year out win the Rugby Europe Championship, Romania at times have challenged but not really recently. Other 2nd/3rd tier teams like Spain, Germany and Russia aren't beating Georgia and Italy comfortably beat them recently. I personally wouldn't want to see it drop back to a 5 Nations and there's no team that can realistically compete as well as Italy did when they joined - so I don't know if the argument of where might Georgia or Romania be if they had 20 years of 6 Nations money, holds much. The Georgian team hasn't been badly funded, I believe privately. Though sure, a nation like Georgia would certainly benefit. I think ultimately we're in the professional era of rugby but it's still in its infancy. Players and teams at club level are wanting more and more money, many teams losing money. There's absolutely no way the championship will want to lose a country like Italy to be replaced with the likes of Georgia. Purely due to sponsorship and brand deals. It's just not as lucrative, if the tier 1 European championship (6N) wasn't ring fenced and had promotion / relegation like the lower tiers, I think this would put some money at risk. Now, if you had Germany and Spain at the heels of Italy, you can absolutely bet they'd be approached with a 2-3 year plan of bringing them into the top tier. Oh and part of what makes the 6Ns what is is, purely IMO is the ease of travel between the nations so many fans do go. I'm not sure we'd see many going as far as Georgia on an annual basis but I'd like to be wrong. [/QUOTE]
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