The 2015 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2015 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) ...

, was the 16th series of the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

, the annual

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

tournament. It 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 ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

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 ...

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 th ...

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 121st edition of the tournament. Ireland retained their title from the previous year, their 13th triumph in the competition. This was the first time that Ireland had retained their title outright since

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – ...

, having shared the 1983 championship with France after winning in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

. They were the first team to be awarded the redesigned Six Nations trophy introduced for 2015, which featured six sides as opposed to five.

Participants

* Parisse did not play in Italy's final match at home against Wales after an injury sustained in their round four match against France.

Leonardo Ghiraldini Leonardo Ghiraldini (born 26 December 1984) is a retired Italian international rugby union player. Ghiraldini's playing position is hooker. Club career Ghiraldini began his career with Petrarca Rugby in his home town of Padua before moving to Ru ...

took his place as captain.

Squads

Table

Fixtures

The 2015 Six Nations Championship commenced with a Friday night fixture, once again held at the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national ru ...

in Cardiff, this time between

and

Round 1

Notes: * Welsh captain Sam Warburton earned his 50th cap for Wales. ---- Notes: * Marco Barbini made his international debut for Italy. * Seán O'Brien was set to return to the Irish line-up after injury, but was replaced by

Tommy O'Donnell Tommy O'Donnell (born 21 May 1987) is an Irish former rugby union player, who spent his entire career with his native province of Munster, whilst also earning 13 international caps for Ireland. After retiring in 2021, O'Donnell moved into coa ...

in the starting XV following injury in the pre-game warm-up. ---- Notes: *

Loann Goujon Loann Goujon (; born 23 April 1989) is a French rugby union player. He currently plays for La Rochelle in the Top 14, normally playing at Flanker or Number 8. Career Goujon first started playing rugby in 2003 at Junior rugby level. From 2003 to 2 ...

made his international debut for France. * Sam Hidalgo-Clyne made his international debut for Scotland.

Round 2

Notes: * Giulio Bisegni made his international debut for Italy. * Nick Easter, aged 36, became the oldest English player to score a try in a test match. ---- ----

Round 3

Notes: *

Enrico Bacchin Enrico Bacchin (born 28 November 1992) is a retired Italian rugby union player who played as a centre and he represented Italy on 5 occasions, in 2015. On 10 September 2015, he was named in the squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in substitution ...

and Michele Visentin made their international debuts for Italy. * Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson made their international debuts for Scotland. * Italy got its first Six Nations win since beating Ireland 22–15 in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

, and its second away win since beating Scotland 37–17 in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

. ---- Notes: *

Brice Dulin Brice Dulin (Born 13 April 1990) is a French rugby union player. His usual position is fullback, and he currently plays for La Rochelle in the Top 14. He began his career at SU Agen, making his professional debut in 2009. He made his debut for F ...

's try was France's first try against Wales since their 2011 Six Nations fixture. * Wales captain Sam Warburton equalled

Ryan Jones Ryan Paul Jones (born 13 March 1981) is a Wales former international rugby union player who played at Number eight (rugby union), number eight, Flanker (rugby union), blindside flanker or Lock (rugby union), second row. He was involved in three ...

' record of 33 Tests as captain. * George North became the youngest player to earn 50 international caps (47 for Wales, 3 for the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

) at the age of 22, surpassing Australia's Joe Roff, who was 24. ---- Notes: * Nick Easter earned his 50th cap for England. * Ireland reclaim the Millennium Trophy for the first time since 2011.

Round 4

Notes: * With this Welsh win, no team could win the Grand Slam or the Triple Crown. * Rob Evans made his international debut for Wales. * Wales captain Sam Warburton captained his country for a record 34th time, surpassing

' record of 33 Tests as captain. * Paul O'Connell became the fourth player to earn 100 test caps for Ireland. * Johnny Sexton and Cian Healy earned their 50th caps for Ireland. ---- Notes: * England retained the

Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy contested ...

. * With this win, and Wales' win against Ireland, Australia dropped to sixth in the World Rugby Rankings, their lowest ever position. ---- Notes: * Sergio Parisse won his 112th cap for Italy, a new national record. * Noa Nakaitaci made his international debut for France. * This was the first time that Italy failed to score any points in the Six Nations since their 25–0 loss to France in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Round 5

Notes: * Wales' 41-point margin of victory was their biggest winning margin over Italy, surpassing the previous record of 39 they set in 1999. ---- Notes: *

Euan Murray Euan Murray (born 7 August 1980) is a retired Scottish rugby union footballer, whose last club was Pau in the French Top 14. He started his career with Glasgow Warriors before playing for a number of clubs including Northampton Saints, Newc ...

earned his 66th test cap to become Scotland's most-capped prop, surpassing Allan Jacobsen's previous record of 65. *Ireland required a win of at least 21 points in order to remain capable of winning the championship. * Ireland retain the Centenary Quaich. * With this loss, Scotland are effectively whitewashed, and finish at the bottom of the table for the fourth time in the Six Nations era, and the first time since

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, and are awarded the wooden spoon as a result. ---- Notes: * Dan Cole earned his 50th cap for England. * This is the greatest number of points England has ever scored against France. *England had to win this game by 26 points or more to claim the Championship. They only won by 20, meaning that

won the Championship instead.

Statistics

Points scorers

Try scorers

Broadcasting

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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

televised all the matches live, although for viewers in Scotland the week 4 match between Italy and France was shown on BBC Two Scotland. BBC Two also televised live the buildup of the opening match between Wales and England and after the match, an extra between the two sides on BBC Two but only for viewers in Wales. There was also a special Six Nations special looking ahead to the final week match on BBC Two but only for viewers in Northern Ireland. On the morning of the final week of matches, BBC Two televised classic Five Nations matches including Scotland vs Ireland in 1991 and France vs England in 1992. The final match of the tournament between England and France was watched live on BBC One by 9.63 million people, beating the previous record for that fixture of 9.56 million, set in 2011. This followed audiences of 4.1 million for the match between Italy and Wales and 5.1 million for the match between Scotland and Ireland earlier in the day. The BBC website also received 8.22 million unique browser hits during the day, breaking the previous record of 8.03 million set during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

simulcasted Wales matches in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

Notes

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Six Nations 2015 rugby union tournaments for national teams

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2014–15 in European rugby union 2014–15 in Irish rugby union 2014–15 in English rugby union 2014–15 in Welsh rugby union 2014–15 in Scottish rugby union 2014–15 in French rugby union 2014–15 in Italian rugby union February 2015 sports events in Europe March 2015 sports events in Europe Royal Bank of Scotland