Let’s talk about rugby! Who will win the Six Nations this year?
Celebrating the oldest and most important international rugby union tournament in Europe: the Six Nations!
This tournament is very popular and closely followed in Ireland but to understand it we need to go back to the origins of the tournament. It started in 1871 with a match between England and Scotland and in 1882, Wales and Ireland were incorporated and in 1910 France and finally in 2000 Italy. At this stage it was called the Five Nations so the tournament was renamed Six Nations or “RBS 6 Nations” for the sponsor of Royal Bank of Scotland.
These six are the most powerful and best supported rugby teams in Europe.
The tournament is a competition of all against all, each getting 2 points for a match win, 1 for a draw and no points for a loss, the logic is that the team that wins the trophy by achieving more points over the five games.
Several other trophies are contested within the main competition, mostly as long-standing fixtures between pairs of teams. The oldest are Calcutta Cup that is disputed between England and Scotland, and the Triple Crown Trophy, which the team from the British Isles to be imposed on the other three awards.
More recent titles include the Millennium Trophy, which is rewarded to the winner of the match between England and Ireland, the Eurostar Trophy for the winner of the match between France and England and Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy to the winner of the match between Italy and France.
In addition, the Grand Slam is the icing on the cake for the winner of the tournament: they get the trophy if you win every game. By contrast, the wooden spoon is the sad reward to the team that loses every game.
England and Wales lead the Six Nations history with 26 titles, followed by France with 17, Scotland 14 and Ireland with 12. The reigning champions are Ireland, who won the 2014 championship. The winners of this season’s tournament will be the first to claim the re-designed Six Nations trophy. Who will win? Let’s see the results of the current standings:
This year´s Six Nations began on February 6 and will end on March 21. We are now in the most interesting phase of the tournament. After the third round Ireland is in the lead with 3 games won, with a total of 6 points and remains as the only candidate who can possibly achieve the Grand Slam.
Last week Ireland won the rematch with arch-rivals England who hadn’t won since 2011. With a crushing 19-9 result at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland is confirmed as the favourite to win the title in the Six Nations after the third round of matches.
But there still remains much to play for! On the 14th of March Ireland will visit the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, where ambitious Wales who still have opportunities to achieve the title. And a week later Ireland will play at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, to try to get their third Gram Slam since 2009.
Meanwhile, England at Twickenham get to play Scotland in the Calcutta Cup game and the threat of ‘Wooden Spoon’ rests on the ‘Thistle’, while Italy host France in Rome’s Olympic stadium.
Upcoming matches:
(Source: Wikipedia)
WEEK 4:
WEEK 5:
And the saying is this, let the best team win!!!
Don’t miss our post next week: we are gearing up for the biggest festival in Ireland! St Patrick’s Day!
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