The Rugby Six Nations Cup Event has only been in existence since 2000 previously it was referred to as the Five Nations Championship. Every year this event takes place and involves six European International Rugby Union Teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy.
Every team must field 15 players to take part during the two halves which are made up of 40 minutes each. However, should a player do something that is deemed to not be within the spirit of the game or tackles incorrectly the referee has the chance to send them to the sin bin. The player sent here remains in this position for 10 minutes.
This year’s Rugby Six Nations Cup Event commenced on Saturday 6th February 2010. Every team involved will play the others over the next 9 weeks with the final matches taking place on the 20th March 2010. The team that scores the most points during these matches is the team that is declared the winner. For each game a team wins they are awarded 2 points, if the game is drawn then each team is awarded 1 point. However, if a team do not win then of course no points will be awarded to them.
Each team will play the other teams either at their own grounds or away at the others. The home matches for England take place at Twickenham near London. As for the rest of the teams Ireland’s take place at Croke Park, Dublin currently, Scotland’s take place at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, the Wales games happen at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. When it comes to the France games these may occur at the Stade de France, Paris and Italy’s will happen at the Stadio Flaminio, Rome.
But along with the presentation of the Six Nations Cup there are other trophies that certain teams will be competing for. These include the Triple Crown that is contested between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Calcutta Cup which is contested between England and Scotland. Then there is the Centenary Quaich (a drinking vessel) that is contested for between Scotland and Ireland. Also there is the Millennium Trophy which has been contested since 1988 between England and Ireland. Finally there is the latest trophy known as the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy that Italy and France contest for and have done since 2007.
Although the Six Nations Cup is the one of the rugby trophies that all the teams would like to win, when it comes to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales winning the Triple Crown is also very important. Yet before 2006 the team that did win this contest were never actually presented with a trophy. The first team to actually receive the trophy was Ireland and they are the current holders of it after beating Wales in March 2009.
Should a team beat all others in the Rugby Six Nations Cup Event then it is said that they have won the “Grand Slam”. There are only 3 teams who have taken part in this event since its beginning who have won the “Grand Slam” title back to back. These are England, Wales and France. But the team that has won the most of these is England with 12, followed closely by Wales with and France with 8. As for Scotland they have only one a Grand Slam title 3 times and Ireland just twice.
Photo Source - Wikipedia