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Six Nations |
The Six Nations Championship, 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. |
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Rugby World Cup |
The Rugby World Cup is the premier international rugby union competition and is contested by the men's national teams. The inaugural tournament was held in 1987, and is now contested every four years. |
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The 6 Nations European Rugby Tournament
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Europe's Number One Rugby Competition which takes place in the depths of the winter months and involves the top six teams in Europe namely, England, Scotland, France, Wales, Ireland and Italy.
The Six Nations history goes back to the late 1800s when England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland were the founding nations in the were known then as the Home Internationals.
Since then the French flirted with the home nations championship but entered full time after the second World War and the tournament became known as the Five Nations and more recently in the 1990s Italy became members of this elite club of top flight Northern hemisphere teams and as it is known today as the 6 Nations Championship. The winner of the RBS 6 Nations is sometimes seen as being the European Champions. |
The Six Nations Championship, with its predecessors the Five Nations and the Home Championship, is the premier international rugby union tournament in the Northern Hemisphere. It has also in the past been known as 'The International Championship'.
History of the 6 Nations
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. The 1908 and 1909 championships won by Wales, although won during the Home Nations era, could be regarded as Grand Slams, as they also defeated France both seasons.
In 1910 the French, who had played in four of the tournaments up to that point, officially joined the competition and coined the phrase "Five Nations". England won the first championship of the new era, with the Welsh achieving the first Grand Slam the following year. The competition was suspended during World War I (1914-18). In 1931, France were ejected from the tournament (see below), which reverted to being the "Home Nations" from 1932 through to 1939. The competition was suspended again during World War II (1939-1945). With France back in the competition, the Five Nations resumed in 1947, with a shared victory for England and Wales. France won their first shared title in 1954, and their first outright title in 1959.
By the 1970s the Five Nations Championship had become the pre-eminent series in Northern hemisphere rugby union with matches becoming all-ticket affairs, gaining huge popularity and a large television audience. The 1972 tournament was not finished after Scotland and Wales refused to play in Dublin. The season after was unique for a five-way tie, with every nation having won and lost two games. The 1970s marked the golden age for Welsh rugby; winning three Grand Slams and one Triple Crown during the decade. Until 1993, there was no tangible reward for winning the Five Nations championship: there was neither flag nor cup or any other kind of trophy. However, for season 1992-93, there was presented, for competition, the Five Nations Championship Trophy.
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 2000 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 Championship Trophy - The Prize of the 6 Nations Championship
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The winners of the RBS 6 Nations are presented with the Championship Trophy. This was originally conceived by the Earl of Westmorland, and was first presented to the winners of the 1993 championship, France. It is a sterling silver trophy, designed by James Brent-Ward and made by a team of eight silversmiths from the London firm William Comyns; it is valued at £55,000. Although originally silver on the inside, it is now plated with 22 carat gold for protection.
It has 15 side panels representing the 15 members of the team and with three handles to represent the three officials (referee and two touch judges). The cup has a capacity of 3.75 litres – sufficient for five bottles of champagne. Within the mahogany base is a concealed drawer which contains six alternate finials, each a silver replica of one of the team emblems, which can be screwed on the detachable lid. |
The Rugby World Cup - The Biggest Prize in International Rugby
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The Rugby World Cup tournament is one of the largest international sporting competitions in the world. The current model features twenty nations competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages, a group and a knock-out. Nations are divided into four pools, A through to D, of five nations each. The pool allocation system seeds teams ranked one to four from the previous tournament into A to D pools respectively. The other four automatic entrants—the losing quarter-finalists from the previous tournament—are drawn into pools at random. The remaining positions in each pool are filled by the qualifiers. Nations play four pool games, playing their respective pool members once. A bonus points system is used during pool play. If two or more teams are level on points, a system of criteria is used to determine the higher rank; the sixth and final criterion decides the higher rank through the Official IRB World Rankings. |
The winner (first position) and runner-up (second position) of each pool enters the knock-out stage. The knock-out stage consists of quarter- and semi-finals, and then the final. The winner of each pool is placed against a runner-up of a different pool in a quarter-final. The winner of each quarter-final goes on to the semi-finals, where the respective winners proceed to the final. Losers of the semi-finals contest for third place (called the 'Bronze Final'). Should a tie result during an event in the knock-out stages, the winner is determined through extra time. Should that fail, sudden death begins when the next team to score any points is declared with winner; as a last resort, a kicking competition is used.
History of the Rugby World Cup
Prior to the Rugby World Cup, there were only regional international rugby union competitions. One of the largest and oldest is the Six Nations Championship, which started in 1883 as the "Home Nations" championship, a tournament between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It became the Five Nations in 1910, when France joined the tournament. France did not participate from 1931 to 1939, during which period it reverted back to a Home Nations championship. In 2000, Italy joined the competition, which became the Six Nations.
In the southern hemisphere, the equivalent competition is the Tri Nations series held between Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Rugby union was also played at the Summer Olympics, first appearing at the 1900 Paris games and subsequently at London in 1908, Antwerp in 1920, and Paris again in 1924. France won the first gold medal, then Australasia, with the last two being won by the United States. However rugby union was soon removed from the Summer Olympic program.
The idea of a Rugby World Cup had been suggested on numerous occasions going back to the 1950s, but met with oppostion from most unions in the IRFB. The idea resurfaced several times in the early 1980s, with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) independently writing to the IRFB seeking to conduct a World Cup tournament. In 1985, Australia, New Zealand and France were in favour of a world cup and, despite knowing that the international sports boycott on their apartheid regime would prevent their participation, the South African delegates also voted in favour, which was vital in tying the vote 8-8. When one English delegate followed by a Welsh delegate switched sides, by 10 votes to 6 the IRFB finally approved the inaugural cup, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in May and June of 1987.
The inaugural tournament was contested in Australia and New Zealand between sixteen nations. The All Blacks (New Zealand) became the first ever champions, defeating France twenty-nine points to nine. The subsequent 1991 tournament was hosted by England, with matches also being played throughout the rest of Britain, Ireland and France. This tournament also saw the abolition of invitation qualification—with a qualifying tournament being introduced which involved thirty-five nations. Australia won the second tournament, defeating England, twelve points to six. The 1995 tournament was hosted by South Africa, which had originally tied the vote that eventually saw the first event take place. The tournament was the first that South Africa would actually play in, following the end of the international sports boycott. The tournament had a fairytale ending, as South Africa were crowned champions over the All Blacks, which concluded with then President Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey and matching baseball cap, presenting the trophy to the South Africa's captain Francois Pienaar. The moment is seen as one of the most emotional in the sport's history.
The tournament in 1999 was hosted by Wales with matches also being held throughout the rest of the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. The tournament included a repechage system, alongside specific regional qualifying places, and an increase from sixteen to twenty participating nations. Australia claimed their second title, defeating France in the final. The 2003 event was hosted by Australia; although it was originally intended to be held jointly with New Zealand. England emerged as champions defeating Australia in extra time. England's win was unique in that it broke the Southern hemisphere's domination of the event. Such was the celebration of England's victory, that an estimated 750,000 people gathered in central London to greet the team, making the day the largest sporting celebration of its kind ever in the United Kingdom. The 2007 competition was hosted by France, with matches also being held in Wales and Scotland. South Africa claimed their second title by defeating defending champions England fifteen points to six. The 2011 tournament was awarded to New Zealand in November 2005, ahead of bids from Japan and South Africa.
Webb Ellis Cup - The Prize of the Rugby World Cup
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The Webb Ellis Cup is the prize presented to winners of the Rugby World Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, who is credited with creating the game of rugby football. The trophy is also referred to simply as the Rugby World Cup. The trophy was chosen in 1987 as an appropriate cup for use in the competition. The words 'International Rugby Board' and 'The Webb Ellis Cup' are engraved on the face of the cup. It stands at thirty-eight centimetres and is silver gilded in gold, and supported by two cast scroll handles, one handle has a head of a satyr, and the other has a head of a nymph. The colloquial name of the trophy in Australia is "Bill" (a reference to William Webb Ellis).
The cup was crafted at Garrard's workshop, commissioned by the International Rugby Board (IRB), (then, International Rugby Football Board (IRFB)). The cup was modelled on a 1906 trophy made by Carrington and Co. of London, which was a Victorian design of a 1740 cup by Paul de Lamerie. |
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