The former Irish international and Italian coach was speaking to the Daily Mail that relegating Italy would only be to the sport’s detriment.
“The easy thing is just to question what Italy are doing, but when you look at their style of play, they’re infinitely better than Georgia. They are trying to play a really good brand of rugby under Franco.
“The questions will always be trotted out, ‘Should they be there? Should there be relegation?’ My view is that they earned their place in the first place and my view will never change that our job, in rugby, is to promote the sport.
“Our job is to have a strong Georgia and a strong Romania and strong Pacific island teams. How do we grow the game?
“The worst thing you can do now is contract, and some decisions now could make that happen, which you shouldn’t do. We should all want teams like Georgia and Romania to grow, but let’s not kill off any other nation while we’re at it,”