Six Nations 2008 Rugby Highlights.

2009 RBS Rugby Union Six Nations Championship

Welcome to the RBS Six Nations Championships, which is Europe’s top Rugby competition. It will take place from Saturday 7th February 2009 and conclude on Saturday 21st March 2009. For rugby fans the Championship warms up the winter months often with some of the most pulsating competitive matches imaginable.
The competing Nations are England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France and Italy. For the last five years the championship has been divided between Wales and France, with Wales being the current Champions who won the Grand Slam in 2008 under new coach Warren Gatland.

for further information visit 6nationsrugby.net.

If you want to watch live Six Nations Championship then Click to buy six nations championship tickets

Rugby Six Nations Championship - Records

Major team records Six nations champions:

Most points in a season: 229, England 2001

Most tries in a season: 29, England 2001

Biggest win: 80-23, England v Italy 2001

Most tries in a match: 12, Scotland v Wales 1887

Individual records:

Most tries in a match:

05 - George Lindsay SCO v WAL, 1887

Most conversions in a match:

09 - Jonny Wilkinson ENG v ITA, 2001

Most penalties in a match:

07 - Simon Hodgkinson ENG v WAL, 199107 - Rob Andrew ENG v SCO, 1995

07 - Jonny Wilkinson ENG v FRA, 1999

07 - Neil Jenkins WAL v ITA, 200007 - Gerald Merceron FRA v ITA, 2002

07 - Chris Paterson SCO v WAL, 2007

Get more info at Rugby Six Nations championship

Six Nations Rugby Championship - Results

Overall England has the most Home Nations, Five Nations, and Six Nations tournament victories with 25 (excluding 10 shared victories). Next is Wales with 24 (excluding 11 shared). The only country not to have won the competition is Italy, with no wins from its nine tournaments.

more information

Six Nations Championship - Current venues

The 2008 Rugby 6 Nations matches were held in the following stadiums:


England: Twickenham, London
France: Stade de France, Saint-Denis (near Paris) Ireland: Croke Park, Dublin
Italy: Stadio Flaminio, Rome
Scotland: Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Wales: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff


Croke Park is not the normal home of Irish rugby; it is the flagship stadium of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which until 2005 prohibited its venues from being used for soccer or rugby. Ireland's traditional home, Lansdowne Road, will be unavailable during 2007 or 2008 due to the construction of a completely new stadium on the site of what had become an increasingly run-down structure. The all-Ireland governing body for rugby union, the Irish Rugby Football Union, reached an agreement with the GAA to allow Ireland to play their 6 Nations fixtures at Croke Park in 2007. The agreement will most likely continue until the new Lansdowne Road opens, projected to be in time for the 2010 Six Nations.

Triple Crown Trophy

Despite the history of the Triple Crown there had never been a permanent trophy produced until 2006.
The Trophy is a silver dish measuring 42cm wide and 5cm deep and weighing a hefty three kilos. The Trophy was produced by Hamilton and Inches of Edinburgh and took over four months to make.

Triple Crown history:

• The new Triple Crown Trophy was presented for the first time in 2006
• The Triple Crown has been won 59 times
• The four Home Unions have been competing against each other for 125 years, since the first international between England and Wales in 1882
• The Triple Crown was first won in 1893 when Wales became the first holders of the then mythical trophy

Looking for more details then follow this link Triple Crown Trophy

Six Nations Rugby Championship Trophy

Each year, the RBS Six Nations Championship Trophy is presented to the winning team. Below are some interesting facts regarding the trophy:

The idea of a Trophy for the Six Nations Championship was first thought of by the Earl of Westmorland, and was first presented in 1993 to France (the winners that season). It is held in trust by the Six Nations Championship Trophy Trust.

The Trophy is made of 200 ounces of sterling silver and is insured for £55,000. It was designed by James Brent-Ward, a silversmith designer, and made by eight craftsmen at the London silversmith firm William Comyns. The inside of the Trophy was originally silver, but it became so tarnished from repeated fillings with champagne that it has been lined with 22 carat gold to protect it.

There are fifteen sides to the Trophy, representing each player, and three handles representing each official ie the referee and two touch judges. Around the wooden base of the Trophy is the emblem of each of the six national unions.

The handle, or finial, on the lid is interchangeable and represents the current champions. The current champions are Wales so at the moment the finial is the one decorated with Prince of Wales' feathers. The finials of the five challenging teams are kept in a hidden drawer in the plinth throughout the Championship.

The capacity of the Trophy is exactly five bottles of champagne, one for each of the original Five Nations, and the trophy has a lip at the rim, designed so that it is easy to drink from.

Six Nations Championship Trophy Trust

Six Nations Trophies

Different Trophies are awarded to the different categories of winners of Six Nations Championship.

like:

1. Championship Trophy

2. Triple Crown Trophy

Several other trophies are contested within the main competition, mostly as long-standing fixtures between pairs of teams.

Calcutta Cup - England versus Scotland; contested annually since 1879.

Centenary Quaich - A quaich is a celtic drinking vessel, and is contested between Celtic neighbours Scotland and Ireland. It was first contested in 1989, and the two teams play for it annually.

Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy - Contested between France and Italy in memory of Giuseppe Garibaldi; first awarded in 2007.

Millennium Trophy - Presented to celebrate Dublin's millennium in 1988 the Millennium Trophy is contested between England and Ireland.

Grand Slam - All nations: awarded when one nation defeats the other five.

Rules of the RBS 6 Nations Championship

1. The RBS 6 Nations Championship is contested each season over seven weekends during February, March and sometimes April by the international sides of France England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.


2. 
   Each team plays the other five once per season with home advantage in alternate seasons (eg England hosted France in 2003, and so France host England in 2004), giving a total of 15 matches per Championship.


3. 
   The RBS 6 Nations Championship Trophy is presented to the team who earn the most points during the season, with 2 points being awarded for a win, and 1 point for a drawn match.If two or more teams finish the Championship with the same number points, the winner is decided on match-points difference (subtracting match-points 'against' from match-points 'for' in all Championship matches). If there is still no winner, then it is awarded to the team who scored the most tries during the Championship.If after all this a winner still cannot be decided then the Championship is shared between the teams.


4. 
   If in winning the Championship a team also wins all of their five matches, they are given the title of 'Grand Slam' winner.


5. 
   There is also the title of 'Triple Crown' competed for each season, which is awarded if a team from the 4 Home Unions (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) beats each of the other 3 Home Unions.
   For further information rbs6nations.com
   

Rugby Six Nations - History of Victories

Played annually, the format of the Championship is simple: each team plays every other team once, with home field advantage alternating from one year to the next. Two points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. Unlike most other rugby union competitions the bonus point system is not used.

Victory in every game results in a 'Grand Slam'. Back to back Grand Slams have been achieved on five occasions, by Wales in 1908/1909, by England in 1913/1914, 1923/1924 and 1991/1992 and France in 1997/1998. England holds the record for the number of Grand Slams won with 12, followed by Wales with 10, France with 8, Scotland with 3 and Ireland with 1.


Victory by any Home Nation over the other three Home Nations is a 'Triple Crown'. The Triple Crown has twice been won on four consecutive occasions, once by Wales in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979 and once by England in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. England hold the record for the number of Triple Crowns won with 23, followed by Wales with 20, Scotland with 10 and Ireland with 9. Although this achievement has long been a feature of the tournament, it was not until 2006 that a physical trophy, commissioned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was awarded.

If a nation at the end of the tournament has lost every match it is said to have the Wooden Spoon.

In 2005 Wales won the Grand Slam, becoming the first team ever to win a Grand Slam playing more games away than at home.

In 2006, France won the competition on points difference over Ireland. Ireland received the consolation prize of the Triple Crown Trophy, presented for the first time that year. Italy once more collected the Wooden Spoon. For the first time since 2000, Scotland won the Calcutta Cup.

In 2007, France again won on points difference, after four teams had at least a mathematical chance of topping the table going into the final week. The Italians had their first away win of the tournament beating Scotland in Edinburgh. Scotland won the wooden spoon and Ireland won the Triple Crown for the second straight year and third time in four years.


In 2008 Wales won the Grand Slam with a 29-12 win against France in Cardiff, having only conceded two tries in the championship, beating England's previous record of four tries conceded.

Six Nations Championship - History

In 1871, England and Scotland played the first rugby union international.After 12 years of occasional friendly matches between the teams, the inaugural Home International Championship, comprising England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales was played in 1883. England won the first series, along with a Triple Crown. Up until 1893, England and Scotland were the only champions, with Wales winning their first title that season. Ireland won their first title the following season. more wikipedia>>

Four becomes five
France did not join the fray until 1910 and, despite their later dominance, they struggled at first to achieve any notable success. They did however, coin the phrase 'five nations'. In their first four years of entry, the French won just one game - a one point victory over Scotland in 1911. more>>

Six Nations Rugby Chamionship

France were the first winners of the new trophy, followed by Wales and then England. Scotland's first success came in season 1998-99; Ireland have yet to win it. Scotland was the last nation to win the Five Nations Trophy as such because Italy joined the competition in 2000 and the tournament became known as the "Six Nations Championship". England were the first nation to win the trophy under the new format, winning the 200 competition. The importance of the competition has decreased slightly since the introduction of the Rugby World Cup, but the long-standing rivalries between teams mean that it remains a passionate and fiercely contested prize.

Six Nations - Introduction

The 6 Nations Championship (referred to as RBS 6 Nations for sponsorship reasons), known before 2000 as the Five Nations Championship, is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The winners of the 6 Nations are sometimes seen as being the European Champions.

more on six nations>>

Rugby fans desperately wait for this event every year from all the six nations i.e. England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Though the dates the match fixtures announced by the officials few months before the event start but the curious Rugby fans buy and book their Six Nations tickets for their favorite teams long before the schedule announcement.