Georgia coach Milton Haig has claimed his team deserve more than their one-off Test against Wales this week.

The Georgians arrive in Cardiff fresh from thrashing Canada 54-22 in Tbilisi, but their opportunities to play tier one nations like Wales are few and far between.

The Georgians now regularly hammer fellow tier two nations and dominate the European Nations tournament, but have so far been given no encouragement they will ever get into the closed shop that is the Six Nations.

Haig, yet another New Zealander earning his crust as a national coach in Europe, says: “The European Nations does not push us as it should do.

“When we get to the November window, we find the gulf between that level and tier one is astronomical. We have had five of these games since 2011, less than half Fiji and Samoa have had, and the question that has to be asked is where is our progression?

“We have shown in the last two years that we have outgrown the European Nations, with no disrespect to the likes of Russia and a team we lost to earlier this year, Romania, but we have reached the stage where we put 54 points on Canada, as we did last week, and I am not happy because the performance was not good enough.

“We are doing all that is expected of us and I would love to have another match against a leading side after Wales because we could measure ourselves. How do we gauge improvement?”

Wales are able to fit in a Test against the Georgians as unlike England, Scotland and Ireland, they play four games in the autumn series, rather than three.

The reasons for the fourth match – which falls outside of the official World Rugby sanctioned window of three Test dates – is to enable the Welsh Rugby Union to bank enough cash to pay their dual-contracted players.

In order to maximise gate receipts, Wales choose to move one of the big touring nations – this year it is South Africa – to the last, unofficial date and squeeze the two tier opponents into the middle of the sequence.

Money talks in global rugby, which is why Georgia have their noses pressed up against the glass window of the Six Nations. They are not turned away due to their standards – they are currently above Italy in the world rankings and are generally considered a far stronger team – but they have so far lacked the commercial clout that might make the Six Nations committee lift their noses from the trough.

But Haig, who took over as Georgia coach after the 2011 World Cup, insists Georgia are now making strides off the field as well as on it.

“I think we have some hope of getting into the Six Nations,” said Haig.

“There have been conversations and the new chief executive of the RFU (Stephen Brown) has said that it may be time to look at Georgia coming in.

“That makes how we perform against Wales and Italy next year important, but we appreciate the number one priority is commercial viability.

“When I arrived in Georgia, you could sponsor the national jersey for $10,000; it costs a bit more now. We have support and regularly get gates of 50,000 and we have a number of partners.”

“An amazing fact about Georgian rugby is that we only have 11,000 registered players from the age of 15 upwards.

“The number is growing because parents, who follow football, have come to appreciate rugby’s values. In the summer, I watched a village under-15 side take on a school from Wales and put 50 points on them, playing some terrific rugby with even props throwing long passes.

“I asked a development officer what had happened and he said a stadium had been built in the village with floodlights and the kids were attracted to it like moths to a flame.

“When I arrived in Georgia we only had two grounds up to standard; now we have at least 16. At that time, we were behind the likes of Samoa, Canada and the USA, but we have beaten them all and attracted a strong following.

“The game against Wales is being televised live, free-to-air, and five companies bid for it.”

“Where we are now is that it is a genuine contest to win the game. Wales will be formidable whatever team they pick because of their rugby history, but they have not had it all their own way against tier two teams in recent years, beating Japan last year with a late drop goal.

“While we will respect them, I have said to our guys: Why not us? They have worked hard so why not create an upset?

“If you do not believe you can win, you start with a deficit and as a New Zealander, that is not my way. They can play and we need the rugby world to know that.”