Looking out over a sorry, soggy scene in Rome, an ailing emperor surveyed a once formidable empire now in ruin. Warren Gatland and Wales had arrived in the Italian capital seeking the invigorating fountains of new life; instead, as the rain tumbled down, deeper into the quagmire they slumped.

The end surely draws near for the head coach as another winless Six Nations beckons after hitting a fresh low. Asked on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast about Gatland’s future, former Wales international James Hook provided a useful summary of the situation. Would Gatland still be the head coach come the 2027 World Cup? No, Hook quickly replied. How about at the start of next year’s Six Nations? No, the 81-capper repeated. What about for the autumn, then?

The answer remained the same. This Welsh empty vessel ploughs inexorably towards another regime change that many felt inevitable from the moment Gatland once more took on an unenviable task. The head coach himself had sounded the alarms at the end of his first tenure about how a golden generation had papered over the cracks apparent within the game in the country, and that the success could not be sustained. The cracks have become chasms; Wales are falling into the abyss.

Defeat in round two drops them below Georgia to 12th in the world rankings; Samoa, who abandoned their November tour amid financial problems and serious allegations against their head coach, sit not far behind.

“There is no doubt it’s challenging,” Gatland said, as the latest inquest began on Saturday. “As a group, the players are working incredibly hard.

“It is frustrating from our point of view in terms of the accuracy and some of the discipline. But the boys spoke well in the changing room at the same time about keeping together and continuing to work hard.

“When you are under pressure, some of your decision-making goes off cue. You definitely feel the pressure as a team that hasn’t won for a while.”

Some have questioned if any coach could do better with a squad not ideally equipped for Test level. Wales were not helped on Saturday by the late withdrawals of Liam Williams and Dafydd Jenkins, which further highlighted a lack of depth. But Gatland continues to make a series of perplexing calls – Ben Thomas is not a fly-half at club level and is being asked to learn the role at a level above that which he should probably be playing. A simplistic attacking system, meanwhile, makes sense for a side blessed with the ball-carriers Wales used to have; for this underpowered team, it seems to be setting them up for failure.

While it is traditionally Italy’s plight that has occupied their attention, Georgia’s rise above any Six Nations team in the rankings reignites the debate over the closed-shop nature of the competition. As the former Soviet state has made rapid strides over the last decade, the prospect of a play-off fixture has been repeatedly raised, some form of promotion and relegation mechanism suggested between the top table and the Rugby Europe Championship (REC) that sits beneath it. Los Lelos have won each of the last seven editions.

To critics of the Six Nations, the fact that there is currently no route in is an example of precisely the sort of anti-expansionist attitudes that have too often held rugby back. Developing interest outside of traditional territories is clear both in the performances of Portugal and others at the 2023 men’s World Cup, and strong crowds during recent REC fixtures.

“We’re 12th in the world, why won’t someone give us a chance?” Georgia coach and former England hooker Richard Cockerill pleaded in an interview with Planet Rugby recently. “We don’t want charity; we want an opportunity. We think we’ve earned that right.

“Georgia win Rugby Europe every year [15 times since 2008], we’re unbeaten in the competition since 2017, we beat Wales the last time we were in Cardiff and Japan last summer. No one tells us, ‘This is what you need to do and if you get to this point you can get the opportunity’. My impression is there is no interest in change.”

It is expected that Georgia will be locked out of the new Nations Cup due to launch next year, with Fiji and Japan likely to join the Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides in a competition that will reshape the July and November international windows. Fiji will be included mostly on merit, but Japan’s inclusion after a pretty wretched 2024 will no doubt inflame Cockerill and co in Tbilisi.

It comes, though, in recognition of the financial might that sits behind Eddie Jones’s side, and the possibilities that truly unlocking the Far East as a broader rugby entity might create. Similarly, the reasons that the Six Nations has not seriously considered expansion or relegation are largely commercial. As detailed in The Independent last week, this is rugby union’s golden goose, working in a way unmatched by any other properties in the sport.

It helps to have the same five fixtures for each nation every year; likewise, to visit six (largely) glamorous destination cities in Western Europe. The rivalry and rancour on which the championship is built would probably not connect in the same way. Tbilisi has plenty of charm but Georgia does not have the same relationship with the other competing sides.

It would be wrong also at this juncture to ignore the ongoing, growing political uncertainty in the former Soviet state, where Russian/European tensions are coming increasingly to a head.

One hopes that Cockerill’s side are not impacted given they have so much to offer the game, despite calls for a Six Nations invite being misplaced. As outlined previously in these pages, one of the concerns of the new Nations Cup is that it will lock out emergent forces, even if promotion from a 12-team second tier is due to come in from 2030 onwards. Openings must be found to provide playing opportunities for teams like Georgia; South Africa’s hosting of Portugal last summer was a positive step in that regard. The expansion of the World Cup in 2027 is good news, too: all of Georgia, Spain, Romania and Portugal secured qualification this weekend.

But the Six Nations will remain intact for the foreseeable future, it would seem, with the only fretting required about whether Wales will be also-rans for the short or long term. Perhaps in a tournament with greater jeopardy, Gatland would be moved on by now. As it is, the Wales head coach has three games in which to find something before the axe finally falls.