Rule change.

Australian international David Pocock thinks it’s disrespectful for people to expect massive margins of victory for Tier One nations over their Tier Two counterparts at the Rugby World Cup.

The 31-year-old was speaking after Australia’s 45-10 over Uruguay at the weekend, with their opponents shocking Fiji the week before with a famous win.

“As a player, I sometimes find it a bit disrespectful with people expecting massive margins at the World Cup,” Pocock said on Monday.

“I think some of the tier-two nations have put a huge amount of work into their prep over the last four years. You’ve seen a massive improvement, obviously led by Japan and the strides they’ve made, but Namibia also against New Zealand last night – in the first half really held their own.

“You’re clearly seeing a lot of IP [intellectual property] moving around the world with coaches and that sort of thing. It’s great for world rugby.”

And Pocock, who was born in Zimbabwe before moving to Australia is in favour of a change in the rules that could help close the gap even more. He thinks it’s “worth talking about” allowing players to return to play for their country of birth if they find themselves out of favour with their adopted nation.

“It’s worth talking about… it gets pretty complicated,” Pocock added.

“In my mind, if you’re not playing for a country that you’ve been capped for a while, and clearly aren’t in contention, then potentially.

“But that’s a discussion for the players’ unions and World Rugby to be having.”