Six Nations History: Origins, Records and Rivalries

The Six Nations is the oldest international rugby tournament there is, and it has changed shape three times without ever really losing the plot. It started with four home nations, became five, then six, and somehow still fits into six weekends a year. Here's where it came from, what a Grand Slam actually means, and why the title counts in the history books are more argumentative than they look.

Where it began

The competition started in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship, played between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. That's it — no France, no Italy, and a fixture list so short you could fit it on a postcard.

France joined officially in 1910, which turned it into the Five Nations. They weren't always in it — the relationship between France and the championship had its stormy phases — but the five-team format defined the competition for most of the twentieth century.

Italy came in for 2000, and that's when the tournament took on the Six Nations name everybody uses today. So the name you know is only about a quarter of the competition's lifetime.

What a Grand Slam actually is

A Grand Slam means winning every match in the tournament in one season. Beating everyone, in one February-to-March run. It's the thing players chase more than the table, because the table can hand you a title with a loss in it — a Grand Slam can't.

The first Grand Slams belong to Wales. The championship's own history treats Wales's 1908 and 1909 Home Nations wins as the first Grand Slams, because Wales also beat France in those seasons even though France weren't yet in the championship proper.

Why the title totals argue with themselves

Here's the honest bit: you'll find different "most championships" numbers depending on where you look, and it isn't because anybody's lying. It's because the answer depends on three choices nobody agrees on:

• Whether shared titles — seasons where two or more teams finished level — count as one each or not at all.
• Whether the Home Nations and Five Nations eras are folded in alongside the Six Nations, or counted separately.
• Whether seasons that were never completed still count.

Rather than pick a number and pretend it's settled, we'd send you to the official roll of honour, which records the championship across all three eras and shows you exactly how each season is treated. It's the only version worth quoting in an argument down the pub.

The fixtures and the silverware

Part of what makes this tournament work is that the matches come with trophies attached, and most of them are older than the competition itself. The Calcutta Cup is played for every year between England and Scotland, and it's the one everybody asks about first. Its origin story is genuinely odd — we'd point you to the championship's own history of the cup rather than repeat a version we haven't checked line by line.

Records that stick

Appearance records tell you more about longevity than tries do, because in this tournament you can play for fifteen years and never win it.

Parisse played through Italy's entire Six Nations existence and lost an awful lot of matches doing it, which somehow makes it more impressive.

Recent winners

France won the 2025 championship and followed it up in 2026 to take the title back to back. Neither of those seasons produced a Grand Slam, which is a decent reminder that winning the tournament and sweeping the board are two different achievements.

Going to a Six Nations match

Six Nations weekends are a brilliant excuse to get the lads together — one match, a pub beforehand, and no excuse for being late to either. Ticket availability and dates are confirmed by the organisers each season, so we won't promise you anything we can't back up. Tell us who you want to see and how many of you there are on our contact page, or browse what we arrange on our sports page.

All tickets, accommodation and activities are subject to availability and confirmation in your written quote. We don't arrange flights.