The History of the Six Nations

With the 2011 Rugby Six Nations coming up next month we take a look at the history of the tournament.

In 1871 England and Scotland played the first rugby union international. Twelve years later in 1883, after occasional friendly matches between the teams, the Home International Championship was born, comprising of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

France had played in four of the tournaments up until 1910 when they officially joined, changing the competitions name from Home International Championship to the Five Nations. England won both the first series and the first series under the new name.

The competition was suspended between 1914 and 1918 for World War One, before France left the tournament in 1931, taking it back to the name Home Nations. The Tournament was again suspended during World War Two in 1939-1945. With France re-joining the competition the Five Nations were resumed in 1947, the French won their first outright title in 1959.

By the early 1970s the competition had become a huge success with all the matches gaining huge popularity, having large TV audiences and becoming ticket only events. The 1972 tournament went unfinished after Scotland and Wales refused to play in Dublin, and the following season was a unique five-way tie with each nation winning and losing two games.

Until 1993 there was no significant reward for winning the Five Nations, a trophy was presented to the winning team, France, that year. Italy finally joined the competition in 2000 giving us the Six Nations as we know it today.

The women’s Six Nations runs at the same time at the men’s, February to March. It was introduced in 2001; however Spain replaced Italy in the line up. It wasn’t until 2007 that Italy took over from the Spanish side to make the women’s competition the same as the men’s.

There are several competitions which take place within the set up of the Six Nations. The Calcutta Cup is a competition between England and Scotland which began in 1879 and the Millennium Trophy has been awarded to the winner between England and Ireland since 1988. Since 2007 France and Italy have had their own trophy the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy.

Female First- Rachael Patan