The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to sponsorship by the

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

, was the 12th 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 ...

, and the 117th edition of the international championship. The annual

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 it ...

tournament 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 France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

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 ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and was won by England. Ireland played their first Six Nations games at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and ...

, having played their first matches at the new stadium in November 2010. For the first time in its history, the tournament opened with a Friday night fixture. For the first time in a decade, all of the teams had the same head coach as in the previous year's tournament. This tournament was also notable for a major upset, with Italy beating 2010 champions France. Despite this upset, Italy still finished last, and was awarded the wooden spoon as a result. The champions were England, who won their first four matches, but were denied the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown by a defeat to Ireland. Italy's Andrea Masi was named the Six Nations Player of the Championship, becoming the first Italian player to win the award with 30% of the voting. The runners up were

Fabio Semenzato Fabio Semenzato (born 6 May 1986) is an Italian rugby union player. His regular playing position is as a scrum-half. He plays currently for Mogliano. Semenzato played for Benetton Treviso from 2005 to 2014 and in 2015 he was named as ''Additi ...

in second, Seán O'Brien in third and

Toby Flood Tobias Gerald Albert Cecil Lieven Flood (born 8 August 1985) is an English rugby union coach and former player. He is currently kicking and skills coach at Newcastle Falcons in Premiership Rugby. During his playing career his position was Fly- ...

in fourth.

Final results

England won the championship after winning four out of their five matches, losing against Ireland. Due to France defeating Wales in the final match of the tournament, England ended the tournament at the top of the table. Had England beaten Ireland it would have led to their first Grand Slam since 2003. Italy lost their final match against Scotland to claim the wooden spoon for the ninth time since entering the competition in 2000.

Participants

The teams involved are:

Squads

:''See

2011 Six Nations Championship squads This is a list of the complete squads for the 2011 Six Nations Championship, an annual rugby union tournament contested by the national rugby teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Each country is entitled to name a squad o ...

.''

Table

Results

Round 1

* Tom Wood (England) made his international debut. ---- *

Fergus McFadden Fergus McFadden (born Kildare 17 June 1986) is an Irish professional rugby union player for Leinster. He played both as a centre and on the wing. Career Early career McFadden started playing rugby as a boy when he played mini rugby with Cill ...

(Ireland) made his international debut. ----

Round 2

* Chris Ashton's four-try performance marked a number of milestones: ** He became the first player of any nation to score four tries in a Six Nations match since the competition expanded in 2000. ** He also became the first England player to have scored four tries in a Six Nations, Five Nations, or Home Nations match since Ronald Poulton-Palmer scored four against France in

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

. ** His six tries in the tournament equalled the single-season record in the Six Nations era, shared by

Will Greenwood William John Heaton Greenwood, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team and the 1997 British & Irish Lions. H ...

of England and Shane Williams of Wales. *

Carlo Del Fava Carlo Antonio Del Fava (born 1 July 1981) is a South African-born Italian former rugby union player. His preferred position was Lock. After hanging his boots up he then decided to take up coaching. Del Fava was born in Mthatha, South Africa t ...

earned his 50th cap *

Alex Corbisiero Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

(England) and

(Italy) made their international debuts. ---- *

Josh Turnbull Joshua "Josh" Turnbull (born 12 March 1988) is a Welsh international rugby union player, who currently plays in the Back row and Second row for Cardiff Rugby in the Pro14 league having previously played for the Scarlets, Llanelli RFC and Ll ...

and Rhys Priestland (both Wales) made their international debuts. ----

Round 3

* Alessandro Zanni (Italy) and James Hook (Wales) each earned their 50th caps. ---- *

Dimitri Yachvili Dimitri Yachvili Markarian (born 19 September 1980, in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Corrèze) is a French former rugby union footballer who played as a scrum-half for Biarritz and France. He played for France from 2002 to 2012, earning 61 caps and scori ...

(France) earned his 50th cap. *

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...

's 52nd-minute penalty for England made him the leading point scorer in international rugby, overtaking

Dan Carter Daniel William Carter (born 5 March 1982) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Carter played for Crusaders (Super Rugby) in New Zealand and played for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks. He is the highest point scorer in ...

. ----

Round 4

* Carlo Festuccia earned his 50th cap *This was the first time Italy had ever beaten France at home, and the first time they had won the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy. ---- * Mike Phillips (Wales) earned his 50th cap. * Brian O'Driscoll's try gave him 24 career tries in the Championship, equalling the all-time record of

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

of Scotland, amassed in the Five Nations and Home Nations between

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hold ...

and

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

. * Ronan O'Gara became the fifth player in rugby history with 1,000 career Test points, reaching the mark with his conversion of O'Driscoll's try. * The officials were heavily criticised for allowing the Wales try as it was scored following a quick throw-in after the ball went out on the full, with a different ball. A quick throw-in must be taken with the same ball without it being touched after going over the touchline. ---- *In the 58th minute, referee Poite was replaced by Jérôme Garcès due to injury. Andrew Small (

) replaced Garcès as touch judge.

Round 5

* Scotland's victory lifted them from the bottom of the table and condemned Italy to a fourth consecutive wooden spoon. * De Luca's try was the first for Scotland at Murrayfield for nearly two years. ---- * Brian O'Driscoll's try against England took his all-time championship tally up to 25, breaking the record held by Ian Smith since 1933. *

Denis Leamy Denis Patrick Leamy (born 27 November 1981) is an Irish former rugby union player who is currently part of the coaching team with Munster. He was a back-row forward who could play either flanker or at number 8, and occasionally played at cent ...

(Ireland) and Mark Cueto (England) each earned their 50th caps. ---- * Wales needed to beat France by 27 points to clinch the title. *

Ryan Jones Ryan Paul Jones (born 13 March 1981) is a Wales former international rugby union player who played at number eight, blindside flanker or second row. He was involved in three Grand Slam wins, in 2005, as captain in 2008, and 2012. He is one ...

(Wales) earned his 50th cap.

Top scorers

Try scorers

Points scorers

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 ...

, BBC channels televised the matches live. The matches were also televised by

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...

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 ...

, Sky Sport in

and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. In

, Welsh language channel

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 ...

televised Wales matches live. 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

, Premium Sports televised the matches live while in the United States,

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 ...

televised some matches.

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Six Nations 2011 rugby union tournaments for national teams

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

2010–11 in European rugby union 2010–11 in Irish rugby union 2010–11 in English rugby union 2010–11 in Welsh rugby union 2010–11 in Scottish rugby union 2010–11 in French rugby union 2010–11 in Italian rugby union February 2011 sports events in Europe March 2011 sports events in Europe Royal Bank of Scotland