Six Nations Championship

Six Nations Championship
Current season or competition:: 2017 Six Nations Championship
The official RBS 6 Nations logo
Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	1883 (as Home Nations Championship) 1910 (as Five Nations Championship) 2000 (as Six Nations Championship)
Number of teams	6
Country	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Holders	England
Most titles	England (28 outright titles, 10 shared titles)
Website	http://www.rbs6nations.com/

Five Nations

Unions	International Rugby Board
First match
Overseas Unions 32 – 13 Five Nations XV
Largest win
None
Largest defeat
Overseas Unions 32 – 13 Five Nations XV

The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The current champions are England, having won the 2017 tournament.

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. The winners of the Six Nations Championship are sometimes unofficially referred to in the media as the European Champions or Northern Hemisphere Champions.

England hold the record for outright wins of the Home Nations, Five Nations and Six Nations tournaments, with 28 titles, although Wales follow closely with 26 outright wins with the addition of 12 shared victories to England's 10. Since the Six Nations era started in 2000, only Italy and Scotland have failed to win the Six Nations title, although Scotland were the last outright winners of the Five Nations.

Played annually, the format of the Championship is simple: each team plays every other team once (making a total of 15 matches), with home ground advantage alternating from one year to the next. Prior to 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 the bonus point system has not previously been used.

On 30 November 2016, the 6 Nations Committee announced that the bonus point system will be trialled for the 2017 Championship. The system will be 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 match, and 1 for losing by 7 points or fewer), with the only difference being that a Grand Slam winner will be given 3 extra points to ensure they finish top of the table. A review on how well the system worked will take place following the tournament.