It is often the case that the older a sport is, the more deep-seated and complex its traditions are. As rugby’s oldest international tournament, having been founded over a hundred years before the
, the Six Nations Championship certainly has its fair share of historic conventions and nomenclature. These range from the various internal competitions within the tournament, such as the Calcutta Cup, which is only contested by England and Scotland, to the dreaded wooden spoon, the figurative award given to the team that finishes last. However, the tournament has by no means stood still. Originally established as the Home International Championship in 1883, with only England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland participating, France was included in the competition during the twentieth century, and Italy joined in 2000 as the tournament’s eponymous sixth nation.
Which country has won the most Six Nations titles?
Owing to its round-robin format, whereby every team plays each other once and the winner is decided by points rather than knockout rounds, there is not always an outright Six Nations champion. Accordingly, in the
Six Nations winners list, there have been 47 instances of shared Championship wins since the tournament’s inception as of 2024, with Wales having won the most of them. Meanwhile, England had the most outright Championship wins, with 29. England also lays claim to the
most Grand Slam titles in the Six Nations, which is the highest honor a team can achieve in the competition, having won every match. The last team to complete a Grand Slam was Ireland in the 2023 Six Nations, during which Ireland’s then-skipper Johnny Sexton also became the
Six Nations' all-time highest points scorer. Ireland came close to claiming back-to-back Grand Slams in 2024, however, were beaten by England in the fourth round of the competition, losing by one point after England kicked a drop goal in the final minute of the match. Nevertheless, Ireland were champions of the 2024 edition of the tournament, and claimed five million British pounds in
Six Nations prize money.
Who follows the Six Nations?
The Six Nations regularly draws TV audiences running into the millions, with the match in which Sexton broke the record for highest points scorer being the
most watched Six Nations game in the UK in 2023, attracting a viewership of 4.57 million. When it comes to age, the Six Nations has a relatively
older fan base than many other international sports competitions such as Formula 1 and the FIFA World Cup, with around 45 percent of its fans in Europe being over the age of 55. The
gender distribution of Six Nations fans is also more male-centric than these other competitions, with men accounting for 66 percent of fans. However, regarding the women’s edition of the tournament, there has been an increased interest among female viewers, with the
share of female TV viewers of the Women’s Six Nations in the UK rising from 37 percent in 2022 to 42 percent in 2023.
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