48 Fun Facts About Six Nations

What happened to the Six Nations trophy midway through the 2026 championship?

It was damaged by fire when the vehicle carrying it was caught in an incident in Ireland; the maker said it could not be restored, so the champions lifted an identical stand-in and a new trophy was ordered for 2027.

Whose last-kick penalty in Paris beat England 48–46 in March 2026 and earned France a second straight title?

Thomas Ramos, the championship's top scorer for a fourth year running, landed the kick that edged Ireland out of the title by two table points.

Which two forwards were banned in 1988 for kicking the Calcutta Cup along Edinburgh's Princes Street?

Dean Richards and John Jeffrey knocked the 1878 trophy about after a few drinks; Jeffrey got a six-month ban from the Scottish union while Richards was suspended for one match.

Italy's 23–18 win in Rome in 2026 was their first ever over which Six Nations rival, after 32 straight defeats?

England led 18–10 in the second half, then had Sam Underhill and Maro Itoje sin-binned, and Leonardo Marin scored under the posts eight minutes from time.

Why was the 2026 opener between France and Ireland played on a Thursday night, a championship first?

A Winter Olympics ceremony clash: Milan's opening night fell on the Friday, so the game moved a day earlier to protect French television audiences, and France won it 36–14.

Which Ireland fly-half became the Six Nations' record points scorer during the 2023 Grand Slam season?

Johnny Sexton took the record with a first-half penalty against England in Dublin, in his last championship match, and by the end of the day Ireland had completed a Grand Slam in Dublin for the first time.

Which Ireland centre holds the championship try record with 26, having passed Scotland's Ian Smith in 2011?

Brian O'Driscoll's record try came in a 24–8 win in Dublin in 2011 that wrecked England's Grand Slam bid, and it passed a mark Ian Smith had held for 78 years.

Which team, Grand Slam winners in 2019, finished bottom of the Six Nations table in 2024, 2025 and 2026?

Wales lost 15 championship matches in a row between 2023 and 2026; before that slump, Italy had finished last in 18 of the first 24 Six Nations.

Which France wing scored a record nine tries in the 2026 championship, four of them in the last match in Paris?

Louis Bielle-Biarrey broke his own record of eight, set a year earlier, with four tries in a 48–46 win over England settled by the last kick, and was Player of the Championship both years.

A hidden drawer in the 1993 championship trophy stored which swappable part?

Lid emblems: the reigning champions' finial sat on top while those of the other teams waited in a hidden drawer in the plinth.

The 1993 championship trophy had fifteen sides for the players and three handles honouring whom?

The match officials got the three handles, one for the referee and one for each touch judge; champagne tarnished the silver bowl so badly that it was later lined with gold.

France were expelled from the Five Nations after the 1931 tournament over allegations of what in their domestic game?

Professionalism allegations and administrative failings kept France out until 1947, so the four Home Nations played alone again through the 1930s.

Why did England miss the 1888 and 1889 Home Nations championships?

Refusing to join the IRFB cost England two seasons: the board grew out of a disputed try against Scotland in 1884, and when England signed up in 1890 they got six of its twelve votes.

Because no silverware existed for it until 2006, the Triple Crown was sometimes known by what nickname?

The invisible cup gained a body when sponsor RBS commissioned a trophy in 2006; Ireland, who had won the 2004 Triple Crown with nothing to lift, were the first to raise it.

In 1975 retired Durham miner Dave Merrington carved an unofficial Triple Crown trophy, now at Twickenham, from what?

A lump of coal hewn from the Haig Colliery in Cumbria became a crown on a four-sided base bearing a rose, a shamrock, a thistle and the Prince of Wales's feathers.

Before 1994, what happened when two or more teams finished the Five Nations level on match points?

The title was shared, so England's Triple Crown sides of 1954 and 1960 beat all three home rivals and still had to split the championship.

Which nation waited until 1968 for a first Grand Slam, then won ten of them by 2022?

France needed 58 years: they joined in 1910, were thrown out after 1931 and did not return until 1947, then swept the board in 1968 and nine more times by 2022.

Which Scottish ex-teacher, 'the voice of rugby', commentated on the championship for the BBC until retiring in 2002?

Bill McLaren was on the verge of a Scotland cap in 1947 when tuberculosis nearly killed him; he made his first commentaries while recovering, describing table tennis for the hospital radio.

Scotland won the last Five Nations, in 1999, finishing above England on which tiebreaker?

Points difference gave Scotland the title a day after their own campaign ended: England only had to beat Wales at Wembley and led as the clock passed 80 minutes, then lost by a point.

Whose last-minute try at Wembley in 1999, converted by Neil Jenkins, denied England a Five Nations Grand Slam?

Scott Gibbs shrugged off several tacklers from about 20 metres out with the clock past 80 minutes, and Wales's one-point win handed the championship to Scotland.

Which Scotland captain chose the slow walk onto Murrayfield before the 1990 Grand Slam decider against England?

David Sole led his men out at a walk against the hot favourites, and Tony Stanger's try sealed a 13–7 win that brought the Grand Slam, Triple Crown and Calcutta Cup in one afternoon.

Which anthem was sung without incident at Croke Park in 2007, scene of the Bloody Sunday shootings of 1920?

God Save the Queen was sung without interruption and applauded by both sets of supporters; Ireland then won 43–13, which was still their biggest win over England in 2026.

England's refusal to shift from Ireland's 'lucky' side in 2003 forced President Mary McAleese to do what?

Walk on the grass she did, because the red carpet no longer reached the Irish line-up; the IRFU sent her a written apology the next day and England won the Grand Slam.

Whose late drop goal in Cardiff sealed Ireland's 2009 Grand Slam, their first since 1948?

Ronan O'Gara's kick made it 17–15 before Stephen Jones missed a long penalty for Wales, ending a 61-year wait for a second Irish slam.

Ireland's 2018 Grand Slam began with an 83rd-minute drop goal in Paris that came after how many phases of play?

41 phases through the rain gained so little ground that the winning drop goal still had to travel 45 metres, deep into overtime.

Whose try in the final two minutes in Cardiff in 2022 ended Italy's run of 36 straight Six Nations defeats?

Edoardo Padovani finished a counter-attack from deep by full-back Ange Capuozzo, making his first start, and Paolo Garbisi's conversion with the final kick beat the defending champions 22–21.

Which Wales full-back, the 2013 Player of the Championship, kicked four penalties in the record 30–3 rout of England?

Leigh Halfpenny's kicks put Wales 9–3 up at the break, still short of the seven-point win they needed for the title; two Alex Cuthbert tries then ended England's Grand Slam bid with a record defeat.

Whose last-play try earned England a 38–38 draw after Scotland recovered from 31–0 down in 2019?

George Ford converted his own try with the last play, and the 38–38 draw still sent the Calcutta Cup home with Scotland as holders.

Italy's first Six Nations home, the Stadio Flaminio used from 2000 to 2011, was built for which event?

The 1960 Olympic football final was played there; half a century on it was the smallest ground in the Six Nations, and when a promised expansion stalled Italy moved to the Stadio Olimpico.

What did Scottish rugby introduce after 104,000 squeezed into Murrayfield for the 1975 Wales game?

All-ticket matches became the rule: fans had paid at the gate that day, ticket holders were locked out, and the 104,000 stayed rugby's record crowd until 1999.

The Aviva Stadium, opened in May 2010, was built on the site of which ground, the world's oldest Test rugby venue?

Lansdowne Road staged its first international, against England, in 1878 and was demolished in 2007, sending Ireland to Croke Park for the 2007 to 2010 championships.

The Millennium Stadium became the Principality Stadium in 2016 under a ten-year naming deal with what kind of business?

A building society based in Cardiff, the Principality, took the name for ten years; the union was still paying off the £121m ground, and in 2026 the deal was extended to 2030.

Italy's first Six Nations match at the Stadio Olimpico, against England in 2012, was played on a pitch in what state?

Frozen after snowfall that nearly forced the game off, the pitch stayed partly white all match; England trailed 15–6 before Charlie Hodgson charged down a kick to score, and won 19–15.

Which broadcaster took England's home championship matches away from the BBC in the late 1990s?

Sky Sports paid £87.5m in 1996 when England broke ranks and sold their home games alone; in 2002 the BBC won back the entire championship for £70m.

Which prize, shaped like a horned Viking helmet, has been played for by England and Ireland since 1988?

The Millennium Trophy was made for a one-off match marking Dublin's 1988 millennium, which England won 21–10; by 2026 England had lifted it 21 times to Ireland's 18.

Which former France flanker turned sculptor designed the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy, first awarded in 2007?

Jean-Pierre Rives's design marked the bicentenary of Garibaldi's birth, and France had won the trophy seventeen times to Italy's two by 2026.

The Auld Alliance Trophy, contested since 2018, honours French and Scottish rugby players killed in which conflict?

The First World War claimed both nations' last pre-war captains, Eric Milroy and Marcel Burgun, whose names are engraved on the silver beside poppies and cornflowers.

The Scotland–Wales cup created in 2018 and named for lock Doddie Weir raises awareness of which illness?

Motor neurone disease was diagnosed in Weir in 2016 and killed him in 2022 aged 52; he joked that the cup's big handles emulated his massive ears.

Which Italy forward made 69 Six Nations appearances between 2004 and 2019, still the record in 2026?

Sergio Parisse started every one of his 69 matches but was denied a send-off: a typhoon cancelled his planned last game at the 2019 World Cup, and his goodbye in Rome a year later never happened.

In England's 80–23 win over Italy in 2001, Jonny Wilkinson's 35 points included nine of what?

Conversions followed nine of England's ten tries: Italy trailed only 33–23 at half-time, then failed to score again as England added 47 points and Wilkinson set a championship match record.

Which England wing scored four tries against Italy in 2011, one short of a record from 1887?

Chris Ashton swallow-dived over for the first, a celebration England's management had warned him to drop a week earlier; George Lindsay's five for Scotland against Wales in 1887 was still the record in 2026.

Which sponsor name replaced RBS for the single season of 2018, while the Royal Bank of Scotland brand was being retired?

NatWest 6 Nations filled a one-year extension agreed at a reduced rate after organisers struggled to find a new sponsor, before Guinness arrived for 2019.

Why were Ireland's three 2001 matches against the Home Nations postponed until September and October?

A foot-and-mouth outbreak restricted travel across Britain, and Ireland then beat England 20–14 in October to deny them a Grand Slam at the final hurdle for a third straight year.

England's Red Roses sealed the 2023 Grand Slam against France in their first standalone Test at which ground?

Twickenham drew 58,498, then a world record for women's rugby, and nearly saw a collapse: England led France 33–0 at half-time and held on to win only 38–33.

The Six Nations age-grade championship switched to under-20s in 2008 after four editions at which level?

Under-21 gave way in 2008, the same year the sport's world under-19 and under-21 championships were merged into a single under-20 event; England won the first Six Nations title at both levels.

Which bank became the championship's first title sponsor in 1999, fronting the Five and then Six Nations until 2002?

Lloyds TSB wanted a showcase for its newly merged brand and bought the first title sponsorship the championship ever sold, ending more than a century without a sponsor's name.

With French law banning alcohol sponsorship in sport, what word replaces Guinness on the tournament's French logo?

Greatness sits in the same colour and typeface as the Guinness wordmark, a workaround for the Loi Évin that has applied since the brewer took over in 2019.

France's 2021 match against Scotland was pushed back to the Friday after the final round because of what?

A COVID-19 outbreak in the French camp moved the game to the very end, so France knew they needed four tries and a 21-point win to take the title from Wales; 14-man Scotland won 27–23 instead.