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The Six Nations explained: bonus points, Grand Slam and more
The Six Nations is rugby union's best-known annual international tournament, played by England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales every February and March. Its roots go back to the 1880s, and it comes with its own vocabulary: bonus points, Grand Slams, Triple Crowns and a Wooden Spoon nobody wants. Here is what all of it means, and how the tournament relates to the Rugby World Cup.
The short version
- Six teams play each other once over five rounds, for 15 matches in six or seven weeks. The table decides the champion. There is no final.
- A win is worth 4 points and a draw 2. Teams also earn a bonus point for scoring four or more tries, and another for losing by seven points or fewer.
- A Grand Slam means winning all five matches. It earns 3 bonus points, so a clean sweep always finishes top.
- The Triple Crown goes to one of the four home nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales) if it beats the other three. The Wooden Spoon is for finishing last.
- The Rugby World Cup is a separate tournament held every four years. The next men's World Cup is in Australia from October 1 to November 13, 2027.
The teams and the calendar
The tournament grew out of the Home Nations Championship between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. France joined to make it the Five Nations, and Italy joined in 2000 to make it six.
Each team plays five matches, either two or three of them at home. Home and away swap every year, so if Ireland host England this year, they travel to England next year. The rounds are spread over six or seven weeks, with one or two rest weekends in between. The 2026 tournament ran from February 5 to March 14.
There is no promotion or relegation. The same six teams take part every year, although teams outside the group, Georgia most often, regularly argue for a way in. A Women's Six Nations and an Under-20s Six Nations are played separately by the same six countries.
A quick refresher on rugby scoring
You need the basics of scoring to understand the bonus points:
- Try: 5 points, for grounding the ball over the opponent's goal line.
- Conversion: 2 points, a kick at goal after a try.
- Penalty goal: 3 points.
- Drop goal: 3 points.
- Penalty try: 7 points, awarded when foul play stops a probable try.
Because a converted try is worth 7, "within seven points" means a losing team was one converted try from a draw.
How the table works: bonus points
The Six Nations has used a bonus point system since 2017. Points per match:
| Result | Table points |
|---|---|
| Win | 4 |
| Draw | 2 |
| Loss | 0 |
| Scoring four or more tries (win or lose) | +1 |
| Losing by seven points or fewer | +1 |
| Grand Slam (winning all five matches) | +3 at the end |
A winning team can take 5 points from a match. A losing team can take 2 if it scored four tries and lost by seven or fewer.
The Grand Slam bonus exists to stop a strange result. Without it, a team that won four matches with try bonuses and narrowly lost the fifth could finish level with, or ahead of, an unbeaten team. With it, a Grand Slam team finishes on at least 23 points, which nobody who has lost a match can reach.
If teams finish level on points, the first tiebreaker is points difference (points scored minus points conceded). If that is level too, the team that scored more tries finishes higher.
The 2026 tournament showed why bonus points matter. France and Ireland both won four of their five matches, but France took the title on 21 points to Ireland's 19 because they earned more bonus points. Even then it came down to the final kick of the tournament, a Thomas Ramos penalty that gave France a 48 to 46 win over England.
The Grand Slam, the Triple Crown and the Wooden Spoon
The Grand Slam is winning all five matches. It is the best possible result, and it doesn't happen every year. Nobody managed it in 2026: France lost to Scotland and Ireland lost to France.
The Triple Crown is only open to the four home nations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A team wins it by beating the other three. France and Italy can't win it, and results against them don't count toward it. Ireland won the Triple Crown in 2026 while finishing second in the table.
The Wooden Spoon is the unofficial label for finishing last. There is no actual trophy. Wales finished bottom in 2026 even though they beat Italy on the final weekend. A team that loses all five matches is said to have suffered a whitewash.
The rivalry trophies inside the tournament
Several individual matches carry their own trophies, which is why you will sometimes hear about a cup being won in a match that didn't decide the title. The oldest is the Calcutta Cup, contested by England and Scotland since 1879. Others include the Millennium Trophy (England and Ireland), the Centenary Quaich (Ireland and Scotland), the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy (France and Italy), the Auld Alliance Trophy (France and Scotland) and the Doddie Weir Cup (Scotland and Wales).
Where the Rugby World Cup fits
The Rugby World Cup is the sport's biggest event and is held every four years, separately from the Six Nations. The men's tournament in Australia in 2027 is the first with 24 teams, up from 20. The teams are split into six pools of four. The top two in each pool and the four best third-placed teams go through to a new round of 16, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.
South Africa won the last two men's World Cups, in 2019 and 2023, and have won it four times in all. England, in 2003, are the only Six Nations team to have won the men's tournament.
Separately, a new Nations Championship started in 2026. The six Six Nations teams play Argentina, Australia, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa in the July and November international windows, with a finals weekend in London from November 27 to 29, 2026. It is planned for every second year, outside World Cup and British and Irish Lions years, and it doesn't replace the Six Nations.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a Grand Slam and the Triple Crown?
A Grand Slam means winning all five Six Nations matches. The Triple Crown means one of the four home nations beating the other three, so a team can win the Triple Crown without winning the Grand Slam or the title.
How many points is a Six Nations win worth?
A win is worth 4 points, plus 1 bonus point if the team scores four or more tries. A Grand Slam adds 3 more points at the end of the tournament.
Can France or Italy win the Triple Crown?
No. The Triple Crown is only contested between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the four home nations.
Is there relegation from the Six Nations?
No. The same six teams play every year, and the team that finishes last simply takes the Wooden Spoon.
The Six Nations packs 15 matches into six or seven weeks, so it is easy to miss a result or a shift in the table. Get Your Sports Here can send you a short daily email on your team or the whole tournament, and the general rundown covers rugby alongside everything else in sport, with every fact linked to its source. You can set up a briefing here, and the year in sport calendar shows when the tournament falls against other seasons.