The greatest Six Nations games ever

From Ireland conquering the world champions to the greatest day of rugby the competition has ever seen, we’ve taken a look at some of the greatest ever Six Nations games ahead of the tournament’s restart this weekend.

Scotland 19-13 England – 02/04/00

England missed out on the 1999 Grand Slam by losing on the last day but in 2000, they travelled to Murrayfield with the hopes of not repeating the same feat this time.

England dominated the game as expected early on, but they could not take charge of the scoreline. After 20 minutes, Scotland finally got on the board, but England came right back at them with Lawrence Dallaglio scoring a wonderful try just before the break. In the second half, Scotland dominated England in every single way with Duncan Hodge not missing a kick the whole game. At full-time, Scotland had defeated their arch-rivals 19-13.

England had been denied their second consecutive Grand Slam.

England 13-19 Ireland – 06/03/04

England’s first game at Twickenham after being crowned 2003 world champions was against Ireland, a side that had only beaten England once between 1995 and 2004. Something to remember about this one is that England had not lost at home since 1999 but Ireland were about to spoil the party.

A kicking masterclass from Ronan O’Gara gave Ireland a 12-10 lead before Girvan Dempsey scored the only try of the game to heap more misery on the hosts. England piled on pressure towards the end of the game, but they could not get through Ireland’s defence, resulting in a 19-13 loss for the reigning world champions.

England went on to finish third in the tournament while Ireland finished second behind France, who won the Grand Slam.

Wales 15-17 Ireland – 21/03/09

In March 2009, Ireland had the chance to end a 61-year wait to complete the Grand Slam, but in their way stood a tough Wales side hoping to extinguish that dream.

Wales led 6-0 at half-time thanks to Stephen Jones’ magical kicking but the biggest worry for Ireland was how they were going to break down Wales’ defence who had been magnificent in the first half. Ireland came out with all guns blazing in the second half with Brian O’Driscoll and Tommy Bowe both scoring tries to give them the lead. Wales then came back at Ireland, scoring another three penalties to lead 15-14 with two minutes to go, but yet again, it did not end there. O’Gara’s last-minute drop-kick went over, meaning that Ireland had conquered Wales 17-15.

Ireland had won their first Grand Slam since 1948.

Wales 31-24 Scotland – 13/02/10

Wales were 10 points down against Scotland with five minutes left to play but what happened next was potentially one of the greatest, if not the greatest ending to a Six Nations game in history.

Scotland led 24-10 with only a few minutes left to play and it looked as if Wales were dead and buried in Cardiff, but then everything began to turn on its head. With five minutes left to play, Leigh Halfpenny’s try was converted meaning Wales were now within three points. Scotland had their second man sent off and as a result, Wales successfully converted a penalty, meaning the scores were now level at 24-24.

With 20 seconds left to play, Wales collected Scotland’s restart and pushed for the victory. After a succession of attacking plays, Shane Williams finally broke through Scotland’s defensive line to score a try that gave Wales an incredible 31-24 victory.

Six Nations final day – 21/03/15

Wales, Ireland and England were all in contention to be crowned champions on the final day of the 2015 Six Nations, but no one was ready for the action that would unveil before them…

England started the day as leaders, but Wales demolished Italy 61-20 in the opening game of the day to jump into top spot. Ireland were the next to go against Scotland knowing that they needed a 21-point victory to clinch first. The game ended 40-10 and Ireland were now top of the tree going into the last game of the day.

England faced France at Twickenham needing a 26-point victory to win the Six Nations. They went on to beat France 55-35, but after an incredibly gutsy performance, England fell six points shy of winning the championship.

The final day saw 221 points scored across three games, which is the most ever on a Six Nations weekend. England recorded their largest ever score against France, Ireland claimed their largest ever Six Nations away win and Wales scored their most amount of tries in a single championship half.

A day that went down in history.

England 38-38 Scotland –16/03/19

After dominating the first half through the use of the whole team, England had 31 points on the board to Scotland’s 7. The home team managed an impressive try with just over a minute on the clock; scored by Jack Nowell and his side-stepping footwork.

Within the next 28 minutes, England scored time after time again. Scotland put themselves on the scoreboard after Stuart McInally chased down a lazy kick from Owen Farrell, and then outrun both Farrell and Jonny May to score the try.

Scotland’s comeback in the second half was second to none, with Finn Russell, Magnus Bradbury and Darcy Graham breaking through the English defence – the latter of whom scored twice.

With just 20 minutes left, the two teams were even on 31 points… then with four minutes to go Finn Russell set up Sam Johnson to fight his way through the English defence, and score under the posts. Three minutes into overtime, English replacement George Ford ran between the posts and a successful conversion brought the score even; 38-38.

Had Scotland won, it would have been one of the greatest comebacks in rugby history.

France 32-30 Wales –20/03/21

With the Six Nations still to be decided, this game was set to be a tense one even before kick-off. The first half saw two tries for both sides; from the likes of Romain Taofifenua and Antoine Dupont of France, and Dan Biggar and Josh Navidi of Wales.

The second half saw the already-minimal gap in quality between the two teams tighten further, with two major decisions in the hands of the TMO. First, a try was awarded to Welsh winger, Josh Adams, with the TMO then seeing that the French lock head prop, Paul Willemse, was sent off.

More offences occurred – this time on the Welsh side – with both Taulupe Faletau and Liam Williams sent to the sin bin in quick succession – leaving the Welsh team 10 points up (30-20), but two men down for the remaining seven minutes.

It was only a matter of time before France’s numerical advantage led them to score two tries; from captain Charles Ollivon and fullback Brice Dulin (who later became Player Of The Match). At the final whistle of an incredibly tense and passionate 82 minutes, neither team could win the Grand Slam in 2021.

The title-deciding game occurred when France played Scotland the following weekend, although the French were unable to snatch the title away from the Welsh.

Wales 21-22 Italy – 19/03/22

Wales ended their already underwhelming 2022 Six Nations campaign with a humiliating defeat to Italy on their own soil in Cardiff. The result saw the Italians claim a first Six Nations victory for seven years, ending a run of 36 successive losses in the competition.

Paolo Garbisi opened the scoring for the visitors with a long-range penalty, with Edoardo Padovani soon doubling their advantage to six points with another penalty from almost 50m.

Despite Owen Watkin’s try midway through the first half, Wales trailed at halftime after Italy slotted home four penalties – giving them only their second halftime lead in 11 years in the competition.

In the second half, Josh Adams put in a superb performance to put Wales back in the lead, only for Edoardo Padovani to dramatically score again for Italy in the final moments of the contest.

The result was Italy’s first ever triumph on Welsh soil and ended a run of 16 successive defeats to the reigning Six Nations champions, in what amounted to one of the biggest shocks in the tournament’s history.

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