The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

championship was contested by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Including the competition's previous incarnations as the Home Nations Championship and Five Nations Championship, it was the 118th tournament of the annual European championship. For the first time since 2008, there were no Friday night fixtures. Whilst Italy continued to play their home matches in Rome, they used the

Stadio Olimpico The Stadio Olimpico (English: ''Olympic Stadium'') is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian Na ...

instead of the Stadio Flaminio, which Italy had used for their home Championship fixtures since entering the competition in 2000. The Championship was won by Wales, who achieved their third

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

in eight tournaments.

Participants

The teams involved were:

Squads

Table

Results

Round 1

* Nicolas Mas and

Thierry Dusautoir Thierry Dusautoir (; born 18 November 1981) is a French former rugby union player who last played for France at international level and Toulouse in the French Top 14 club competition. Dusautoir was considered a strong ball carrier and possessed i ...

(both France) earned their 50th caps. *Wesley Fofana, Yoann Maestri (both France), Tobias Botes and Giovanbattista Venditti (both Italy) made their international debuts in this match. *Vincent Clerc's try was the 32nd of his international career, placing him joint second with his coach Philippe Saint-André on the French try scoring list. (To this date,

Serge Blanco Serge Blanco (born 31 August 1958) is a former rugby union footballer who played fullback for Biarritz Olympique and the French national side, gaining 93 caps, 81 of them at fullback. His alternative position was wing. He was generally nicknamed ...

remains the top French try scorer with 38.) ---- *Brad Barritt, Lee Dickson, Phil Dowson, Owen Farrell, Ben Morgan, Geoff Parling, Jordan Turner-Hall (all England) and Lee Jones (Scotland) made their international debuts. * Chris Robshaw of England captained his team earning only his second cap in this match. * This match turned out to be Dan Parks's last appearance with the Scotland jersey as he announced his retirement from international rugby a few days after the game. ---- *

Huw Bennett Huw Bennett (born 11 June 1983) is a former Wales international rugby union hooker, who played most of his rugby career for the Ospreys. Starting his club rugby in Clevedon, Somerset, Bennett has since represented both Wales and England at var ...

(Wales) earned his 50th cap. * Coming off the bench in the 76th minute to replace Johnny Sexton, Ronan O'Gara became the most capped Irish player with 117 caps, jointly with

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the ...

. O'Gara also took sole possession of the all-time lead for appearances in the Championship, with 57. He had previously been level with his countryman Mike Gibson, who made 56 appearances in the Five Nations between 1964 and 1979.

Round 2

* Luca Morisi (Italy) and Rob Webber (England) made their international debuts. * The four-point margin in this match is the joint-closest Italy have ever come to beating England. ---- This match was postponed due to an unplayable pitch. It was the first weather-related postponement of a Five/Six Nations game since 1985. The match was rescheduled for 4 March. ---- * Lou Reed, Aaron Shingler (both Wales), Stuart Hogg and Ed Kalman (both Scotland) made their international debuts.

Round 3

* Peter O'Mahony (Ireland) made his international debut. * Coming off the bench in the 69th minute to replace Gordon D'Arcy, Ronan O'Gara overtook

as the most-capped Irish player with 118 caps. ---- *Wales won their 20th

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

. ---- * Duncan Weir (Scotland) made his international debut.

Rescheduled match

Round 4

* Rhys Webb (Wales) and Fabio Staibano (Italy) made their international debuts. ---- * Matt Scott (Scotland) made his international debut. ----

Round 5

*Scotland were whitewashed. This was the first time since 2007 that Italy avoided the wooden spoon. *Italy's starting pack in this match was the most capped ever to play an international match. ---- *

Matthew Rees Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the ...

(Wales) earned his 50th cap. *Jean-Marcellin Buttin (France) made his international debut. *William Servat and Julien Bonnaire (both France) played their final matches. *Wales won the Grand Slam. ----

Media coverage

In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, all the matches were televised on BBC channels. In

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

and

RTÉ Two HD (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

televised all the matches live. S4C televised Wales matches while French international channel

TV5Monde TV5Monde (), formerly known as TV5, is a French public television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union. The network is available across ...

televised only France matches and was available internationally (including the United States). In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary seri ...

and

BBC America HD BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary seri ...

televised some matches.

Notes

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Six Nations 2012 rugby union tournaments for national teams

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