Italy could not have dreamed of a better start to their mid-year tour of Africa as they comfortably beat Namibia last weekend.

The Azzurri extended their winning run over the Welwitschias to four matches ahead of their two-Test series with South Africa over the coming weeks.

Gonzalo Quesada’s side were in no mood for making a game of this as they opened their account in the third minute with a penalty try before adding 10 more across the rest of the fixture.

Emphatic showing

It was an emphatic performance by Italy and one that sets them up perfectly ahead of their trip to face the Springboks in Pretoria this weekend.

However, the performance and result did raise one major concern.

The gap between Tier One and Tier Two nations seems to be growing once again.

Italy, arguably one of the weaker Tier One sides, easily defeated Namibia despite the absence of many of their well-known stars.

The elite international sides continue to improve due to the ever-growing professionalism of the sport, leaving smaller nations at a disadvantage as they cannot afford to keep up with the traditional rugby countries.

An important initiative to help start bridge the gap in international rugby is the World Rugby Nations Championship, which is set to begin in 2026.

This biennial competition will have two divisions made up of the countries that have qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Competing in the top division are those sides participating in the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and the pair of Fiji and Japan.

The second division will be made up of the other nations to qualify for the biggest competition in the sport, with the European nations the only ones to have been locked in at the time of writing.

Rugby fans may have been hopeful after the conclusion of the 2023 Rugby World Cup that the gap between the two tiers of rugby was starting to decrease and matches may begin to be more competitive moving forward.

However, this has not transpired at all.

The last time a Tier Two nation managed to shock the top table of the sport was in the 2023 World Cup, when Portugal beat Fiji.

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Before then Georgia had beaten two Six Nations sides in 2022, Italy and Wales, as the Lelos continued to fly the flag for Tier Two nations.

The decision to create this competition is an overall positive, as it could be compared to the Nations Leagues created by UEFA to help develop smaller nations by giving them matches against sides at their level before looking to gain promotion and challenge themselves at a higher echelon.

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Yet, this is where the biggest criticism about the competition has been raised, as promotion and relegation will not be commencing until the third edition of it, in 2030.

It is seen that those sides competing in the highest division will continue to improve over the six years before a promotion and relegation, making it impossible for the smaller nations to break into the top league.

Accusations of ‘ring-fencing’ and narrowing smaller nations’ opportunities to play against top sides have been raised by many of those Tier Two countries.

While this is a major concern regarding the development of rugby internationally, it can be seen as an overall positive for the sport.

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However, there should be a push from World Rugby to attempt to help those sides further down the pecking order of the sport to fast-track further their development too.

As the preparations for the 2027 World Cup begin to ramp up for those nations that have already qualified, there is the need to see the development of smaller sides.

Growing the sport

There will be no expectations of the Tier Two sides to shock the bigger teams at the competition; however, there is a hope that the games will not be walkovers at the tournament, particularly following its expansion for the 2027 edition.

Talk of growing the sport, expanding its marketability and bringing major rugby events to locations it has never been to before.

There is a need for the evolution of Tier Two nations.

Time is running out for this as the elite nations continue to professionalise and improve, with it becoming an ever more impossible task to achieve this if there is no opportunity to not only play these Tier One nations but to compete and hopefully beat them in a one-off match.

As witnessed in Namibia’s defeat to Italy, a side that has qualified for the last seven consecutive World Cups, they could not lay a finger on the Azzurri, and it is only set to get worse as the major sides ring-fence themselves from those hoping to compete at the highest level.