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Annual international rugby union competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Men's Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Men's Six Nations, Guinness branded as M6N)[a] is an annual international rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is also the oldest sports tournament ever between Home Nations. The championship holders are Ireland, who won the 2024 tournament.
Current season or competition: 2025 Six Nations Championship | |
 The Guinness Six Nations logo | |
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Instituted | 1883 (as Home Nations Championship) 1910 (as Five Nations Championship) 2000 (as Six Nations Championship) |
| Number of teams | 6 |
| Country |  England France Ireland Italy Scotland Wales |
| Holders | Ireland (2024) |
| Most titles | England and Wales (39 titles) |
| Website | sixnationsrugby.com |
| Related competitions | Women's Six Nations Championship Six Nations Under 20s Championship |
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The tournament is organised by the unions of the six participating nations under the banner of Six Nations Rugby, which is responsible for the promotion and operation of the men's, women's and under-20s tournaments, and the Autumn International Series, as well as the negotiation and management of their centralised commercial rights.
The Six Nations is the successor to the Home Nations Championship (1883–1909 and 1932–39), played between teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which was the first international rugby union tournament.[1] With the addition of France, this became the Five Nations Championship (1910–31 and 1947–99), which in turn became the Six Nations Championship with the addition of Italy in 2000.
England and Wales have won the championship the most times, both with 39 titles, but England have won the most outright titles with 29 (28 for Wales). Since the Six Nations era started in 2000, only Italy and Scotland have failed to win the Six Nations title.
The women's tournament started as the Women's Home Nations in the 1996 season. The men's Six Nations Under 20s Championship is the successor to the Under 21s tournament which began in 2004.
The tournament was first played in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship among the then four Home Nations of the United Kingdom – England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. However, England was excluded from the 1888 and 1889 tournaments due to their refusal to join the International Rugby Football Board. The tournament then became the Five Nations Championship in 1910 with the addition of France. The tournament was expanded in 2000 to become the Six Nations Championship with the addition of Italy.
Following the relative success of the Tier 2 nations in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, there were calls by Octavian Morariu, the president of Rugby Europe, to let Georgia and Romania join the Six Nations due to their consistent success in the European Nations Cup and ability to compete in the Rugby World Cup.[2][3]
The tournament begins on the first weekend in February and culminates on the second or third Saturday in March. Each team plays every other team once (a total of 15 matches), with home ground advantage alternating from one year to the next. Before the 2017 tournament, two points were awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. Unlike many other rugby union competitions, a bonus point system had not previously been used.
A bonus point system was first used in the 2017 Championship. The system is similar to the one used in most rugby championships (0 points for a loss, 2 for a draw, 4 for a win, 1 for scoring four or more tries in a match, and 1 for losing by 7 points or fewer). The only difference is that a team that wins all their games (a Grand Slam) are automatically awarded 3 extra points - to ensure they cannot be overtaken by a defeated team on bonus points.
Before 1994, teams equal on match points shared the championship. Since then, ties have been broken by considering the points difference (total points scored minus total points conceded) of the teams. The rules of the championship further provide that if teams tie on both match points and points difference, the team that scored the most tries wins the championship. Were this decider to be a tie, the tying teams would share the championship.[4] To date, however, match points and points difference have been sufficient to decide the championship.
The Wooden Spoon is a metaphorical award given to the team that finishes in last place; a team which loses all their matches is said to have been "whitewashed".[5] Since the inaugural Six Nations tournament in 2000, only England and Ireland have avoided finishing last. Italy have finished last 18 times in the Six Nations era, and have lost every match 12 times.
The winners of the Six Nations are presented with the Championship Trophy.[6] This was originally conceived by the Earl of Westmorland, and was first presented to the winners of the 1993 championship, France. It is a sterling silver trophy, designed by James Brent-Ward and made by a team of eight silversmiths from the London firm William Comyns.
It has 15 side panels representing the 15 members of the team and with three handles to represent the three officials (referee and two touch judges). The cup has a capacity of 3.75 litres – sufficient for five bottles of champagne. Within the mahogany base is a concealed drawer which contains six alternative finials, each a silver replica of one of the team emblems, which can be screwed on the detachable lid.
A new trophy was introduced for the 2015 Championship.[7] The new trophy was designed and crafted by Thomas Lyte silversmiths and replaces the 1993 edition, which is being retired as it represented the nations that took part in the Five Nations Championship. Ireland were the last team to win the old trophy and the first team to win the new one.[8]
A team that wins all its games wins the 'Grand Slam'.
The Triple Crown may only be won by one of the Home Nations of England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, when one nation wins all three of their matches against the others. The Triple Crown dates back to the original Home Nations Championship, but the physical Triple Crown Trophy has been awarded only since 2006, when the Royal Bank of Scotland (the primary sponsor of the competition) commissioned Hamilton & Inches to design and create a dedicated Triple Crown Trophy. It has since been won four times by Ireland and Wales, and three times by England.
Several individual competitions take place under the umbrella of the tournament. Some of these trophies are also awarded for other matches between the two teams outside the Six Nations. Only Scotland play for a 'rivalry' or challenge trophy in every Six Nations match, as well as for the oldest such trophy, the Calcutta Cup. Wales became the last nation to contest such a trophy, the Doddie Weir Cup in 2018, while the newest such trophy is the Cuttitta Cup introduced between Scotland and Italy in 2022.
| Trophy | Teams | Since | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calcutta Cup | England and Scotland | 1879[9] | Made from melted-down Indian rupees donated by the Calcutta Club |
| Millennium Trophy | England and Ireland | 1988 | Presented to celebrate Dublin's millennium in 1988[10] |
| Centenary Quaich | Ireland and Scotland | 1989[11][12][13] | Named for the quaich, a traditional Gaelic drinking vessel. Marked the centenary of the founding of the International Rugby Football Board. |
| Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy | France and Italy | 2007 | Commemorated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi, leader in the unification of Italy and volunteer in the French Republican Army against Prussia |
| Auld Alliance Trophy | France and Scotland | 2018 | In memory of the war dead from the rugby communities of Scotland and France[14] |
| Doddie Weir Cup | Wales and Scotland | 2018 | In recognition of Doddie Weir, who founded the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation which supports research into motor neurone disease[15] |
| Cuttitta Cup | Scotland and Italy | 2022 | Commemorates Massimo Cuttitta, a former Italian captain and Scotland scrum coach, who died in 2021 at the age of 54 from COVID-19.[16] |
Currently the following matches have no additional trophy contested:
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