1985 Five Nations Championship

The 1985 Five Nations Championship was the fifty-sixth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the ninety-first series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 2 February and 20 April. The championship was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

1985 Five Nations Championship
Date	2 February - 20 April 1985
Countries	England  Ireland  France  Scotland  Wales
Tournament statistics
Champions	Ireland (10th title)
Triple Crown	Ireland (6th title)
Matches played	10
Tries scored	19 (1.9 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Michael Kiernan (42 points)
Top try scorer(s)	Trevor Ringland (3 tries)
← 1984 (Previous) (Next) 1986 →

The championship winner was Ireland, winning their tenth title (excluding eight other shared titles); it would prove to be their last in 24 years, until their Grand Slam in 2009. Ireland also claimed the Triple Crown, their sixth, which would be their last until 2004.

The tournament suffered three match postponements due to bad weather. The opening fixtures, Ireland v England and France v Wales, were postponed to late March and the Wales v England match was put back from February to April because of a frozen pitch in Cardiff. The rescheduled match was notable for the debut, at fly half for Wales, of Jonathan Davies.^[1]

Participants

Nation	Venue	City	Head coach	Captain
England	Twickenham	London	Dick Greenwood	Paul Dodge
France	Parc des Princes	Paris	Jacques Fouroux	Philippe Dintrans
Ireland	Lansdowne Road	Dublin	Mick Doyle	Ciaran Fitzgerald
Scotland	Murrayfield	Edinburgh	Derrick Grant	Roy Laidlaw/David Leslie
Wales	National Stadium	Cardiff	John Bevan	Terry Holmes

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Ireland	4	3	1	0	67	49	+18	7
2	France	4	2	2	0	49	30	+19	6
3	Wales	4	2	0	2	61	71	−10	4
4	England	4	1	1	2	44	53	−9	3
5	Scotland	4	0	0	4	46	64	−18	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Squads

For each nation's squad for the 1985 Five Nations Championship, see 1985 Five Nations Championship squads.

Results

1985-02-02

England	9–9	France
Pen.: Andrew (2) Drops: Andrew	report	Drops: Lescarboura (3)

Twickenham, London Attendance: 60,000 Referee: D. I. H. Burnett (Ireland)

1985-02-02

Scotland	15–18	Ireland
Pen.: Dods (4) Drops: Rutherford	Report	Tries: Ringland (2) Con.: Kiernan (2) Pen.: Kiernan Drops: Kiernan

Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: Steve Strydom (South Africa)

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1985-02-16

France	11–3	Scotland
Tries: Blanco (2) Pen.: Lescarboura	Report	Pen.: Dods

Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 45,146 Referee: L. M. Prideaux (England)

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1985-03-02

Scotland	21–25	Wales
Tries: Paxton (2) Con.: Dods (2) Pen.: Dods Drops: Rutherford (2)	Report	Tries: Pickering (2) Con.: Wyatt Pen.: Wyatt (4) Drops: G. Davies

Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: René Hourquet (France)

1985-03-02

Ireland	15–15	France
Pen.: Kiernan (5)	Report	Tries: Codorniou Estève Con.: Lescarboura (2) Pen.: Lescarboura

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Attendance: 56,000 Referee: Kerry Fitzgerald (Australia)

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1985-03-16

England	10–7	Scotland
Tries: S. Smith Pen.: Andrew (2)	Report	Tries: Robertson Pen.: Dods

Twickenham, London Referee: C. Norling (Wales)

1985-03-16

Wales	9–21	Ireland
Tries: Lewis Con.: Wyatt Drops: G. Davies	Report	Tries: Crossan Ringland Con. Kiernan (2) Pen.: Kiernan (3)

National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: Kerry Fitzgerald (Australia)

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1985-03-30

Ireland	13–10	England
Tries: Mullin Pen.: Kiernan (2) Drops: Kiernan	Report	Tries: R. Underwood Pen.: Andrew (2)

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Referee: J. M. Fleming (Scotland)

1985-03-30

France	14–3	Wales
Tries: Estève Gallion Pen.: Lescarboura (2)	Report	Pen.: Thorburn

Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 49,164 Referee: Steve Strydom (South Africa)

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1985-04-20

Wales	24–15	England
Tries: J. Davies Roberts Con.: Thorburn (2) Pen.: Thorburn (3) Drops: J. Davies	Report	Tries: S. Smith Con.: Andrew Pen.: Andrew (2) Drops: Andrew

National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: F. Palmade (France)