WALES VS ENGLAND, THE SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

After reading the complete Arthurian saga, The Grandma wants to visit Wales, where all the Arthurian legend began.

She has decided to visit Cardiff, the capital of Wales to assist to The Six Nations Championship in Stadiwm y Mileniwm.

Wales vs England is one of the best rugby matches that you can enjoy nowadays.

The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. 

It is the oldest sports tournament contested by the Home Nations. The championship holders are Ireland, who won the 2024 tournament.

The tournament is organised by the unions of the six participating nations under the banner of Six Nations Rugby, which is responsible for the promotion and operation of the men's, women's and under-20s tournaments, and the Autumn International Series, as well as the negotiation and management of their centralised commercial rights.

The Six Nations is the successor to the Home Nations Championship (1883-1909 and 1932-39), played between teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which was the first international rugby union tournament. With the addition of France, this became the Five Nations Championship (1910-31 and 1947-99), which in turn became the Six Nations Championship with the addition of Italy in 2000.

England and Wales have won the championship the most times, both with 39 titles, but England have won the most outright titles with 29 (28 for Wales). Since the Six Nations era started in 2000, only Italy and Scotland have failed to win the Six Nations title.

The women's tournament started as the Women's Home Nations in the 1996 season. The men's Six Nations Under 20s Championship is the successor to the Under 21s tournament which began in 2004.

The tournament was first played in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship among the then four Home Nations of the United Kingdom -England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. However, England was excluded from the 1888 and 1889 tournaments due to their refusal to join the International Rugby Football Board. The tournament then became the Five Nations Championship in 1910 with the addition of France. The tournament was expanded in 2000 to become the Six Nations Championship with the addition of Italy.

Following the relative success of the Tier 2 nations in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, there were calls by Octavian Morariu, the president of Rugby Europe, to let Georgia and Romania join the Six Nations due to their consistent success in the European Nations Cup and ability to compete in the Rugby World Cup.

The tournament begins on the first weekend in February and culminates on the second or third Saturday in March. Each team plays every other team once (a total of 15 matches), with home ground advantage alternating from one year to the next. Before the 2017 tournament, two points were awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. Unlike many other rugby union competitions, a bonus point system had not previously been used.

A bonus point system was first used in the 2017 Championship. The system is similar to the one used in most rugby championships (0 points for a loss, 2 for a draw, 4 for a win, 1 for scoring four or more tries in a match, and 1 for losing by 7 points or fewer). The only difference is that a team that wins all their games (a Grand Slam) are automatically awarded 3 extra points -to ensure they cannot be overtaken by a defeated team on bonus points.

Before 1994, teams equal on match points shared the championship. Since then, ties have been broken by considering the points difference (total points scored minus total points conceded) of the teams. The rules of the championship further provide that if teams tie on both match points and points difference, the team that scored the most tries wins the championship. Were this decider to be a tie, the tying teams would share the championship. To date, however, match points and points difference have been sufficient to decide the championship.

The Wooden Spoon is a metaphorical award given to the team that finishes in last place; a team which loses all their matches is said to have been whitewashed. Since the inaugural Six Nations tournament in 2000, only England and Ireland have avoided finishing last. Italy have finished last 18 times in the Six Nations era, and have lost all their matches in 12 tournaments.

More information: Six Nations Rugby

Rugby is a game that's constant.
If you are not growing with it, you get left behind.

Owen Farrell