Georgia coach Richard Cockerill believes his team have "earned the right" to face Wales in a play-off to decide who should be in next year's Six Nations.

Wales finished bottom of the Six Nations for a second successive year, and have now lost each of their last 17 Test matches.

That has seen them fall to their lowest ever world ranking of 12th - one behind Georgia, who are fresh from winning their 13th Rugby Europe Championship in 14 years.

And Cockerill is adamant his side deserve the opportunity to play at the higher level, saying his players are in need of a greater challenge.

"If you are finishing bottom of the Six Nations, why do you just get free rein to turn up next year and play?" he said. "We want the opportunity to prove that we can compete, so surely that's logical we get the opportunity to have a play-off.

"It would be the richest game in World Rugby - Georgia versus Wales at some point in the near future to see who plays in the Six Nations for the next tournament. That's jeopardy, isn't it? That would be a game people would want to watch.

"We feel we are probably a little bit too strong for this tournament - although, the other teams are improving, especially Spain and Romania. But, for us to improve, we need to play at a tougher level.

"We need to go and get challenged, and we need to lose games. We need to lose games to know what it feels like to play at the level the Six Nations is at, as Italy had that opportunity in the early 2000s.

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"We feel we've earned the right, not to be given that place. We want the opportunity to prove that potentially we're good enough to compete on a regular basis at that level."

However, former England hooker Cockerill acknowledges the chances of this showdown with Wales taking place are highly unlikely.

"If you're in the Six Nations, you wouldn't want to be voting for that type of play-off, would you?" he added.

"Because it might be you - and the ramifications of not being in the Six Nations - from a rugby point of view, but also from a financial point of view would be very, very difficult.

"It's a bit like a Championship football club getting into the Premier League, isn't it? You know it would be the richest game in world rugby.

"That would be a game people would want to watch, and the money involved and the profile involved for Georgian rugby would catapult us into a completely different sphere, if we were good enough to beat whoever finishes bottom.

"And if we lose, well, we re-group, we keep developing, and we fight for the opportunity to do that again. I don't see that as an unreasonable request."