Today, The Grandma has been relaxing at home. She has been reading about sports and she has paid attention about the commemoration of a great event. On a day like today in 1882, Wales and England contest the first Home Nations, now Six Nations, rugby union match.
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales.
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.
England hold the record for outright wins with 29. 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 tournament was first played in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship among the four Home Nations -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.
More information: Six Nation Rugby
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 winners of the Six Nations are presented with the Championship Trophy. This was originally conceived by the Earl of Westmorland, and was first presented to the winners of the 1993 championship, France. It is a sterling silver trophy, designed by James Brent-Ward and made by a team of eight silversmiths from the London firm William Comyns.
It has 15 side panels representing the 15 members of the team and with three handles to represent the three officials, referee and two touch judges. The cup has a capacity of 3.75 litres -sufficient for five bottles of champagne. Within the mahogany base is a concealed drawer which contains six alternative finials, each a silver replica of one of the team emblems, which can be screwed on the detachable lid.
A new trophy was introduced for the 2015 Championship. The new trophy was designed and crafted by Thomas Lyte silversmiths and replaces the 1993 edition, which is being retired as it represented the nations that took part in the Five Nations Championship. Ireland were the last team to win the old trophy, and coincidentally, the first team to win the new one.
More information: Rugby Football History
Rugby is great.
The players don't wear helmets or padding;
they just beat the living daylights out of each other
and then go for a beer.
I love that.
Joe Theismann
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