Six Nations: Triple Crown and Grand Slam winners

The Six Nations is the most prestigious yearly rugby union tournament in the northern hemisphere, comprising of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. You may have heard of the ‘Triple Crown’ and a ‘Grand Slam’, but what do they mean?

Follow along below as we dive into what they are, as well as their previous winners.

Triple Crown

The Triple Crown is an honour achieved by defeating all of the other home nations. The home nations consist of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, meaning that the Triple Crown cannot be won by either France or Italy.

While it does not hold the same weight as winning the actual Six Nations, achieving this award is challenging given you need to better three world class teams without defeat. The award has been won most often by England, who have claimed it 26 times, most recently in 2020.

Last year Ireland clinched the Triple Crown, but failed to beat France and so didn’t win the Six Nations or the Grand Slam. Since the Six Nations began (previously known as Home Nations Championship), the Triple Crown has only been achieved in 69 of 125 tournaments. However, in recent years it has been won more frequently, with 16 winners since 2002, and the last year a Triple Crown wasn’t achieved was 2017.

The table below displays all the Triple Crown winners since the tournament became the Six Nations, and as you can see, Scotland are yet to win the Triple Crown in the Six Nations era, having last won the award in 1990.

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Grand Slam

The epitome of a successful Six Nations campaign is achieving a Grand Slam. A Grand Slam is an achievement where your country has not just won the tournament but has remained undefeated throughout the whole process.

Consistently performing over five weeks is a true test of dominance, and this highly prestigious award has only been won 40 times in the competition’s history. England claim the most Grand Slam victories with 13, but they are closely followed by Wales on 12 and France on 10, with Ireland, Scotland and Italy far behind with just three, three and zero Grand Slams respectively.

Last year France topped off an epic Six Nations campaign with a Grand Slam, and this year Ireland look set to close in on their fourth ever Grand Slam (8/13 to achieve it). Since the competition became the Six Nations, a Grand Slam has only been achieved 12 times.

The table below shows all of the Grand Slam victors since the Six Nations began, with both Scotland and Italy yet to achieve the feat since the turn of the century.

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