6 Nations

Trophy Winners #3 – Rugby Union (Men) 1984 to 2025

October 4, 2025 By Nigel Marriott

South Africa have won back to back Rugby Championships for the first time ever. That marks the last trophy to be won in the 2025 calendar year for men’s rugby worldwide and coincides with the start of the 2025/26 season in Europe. This makes it a propitious time to update my list of all trophy winners in men’s rugby worldwide since 1984,

6 Nations History #4 – The men’s story so far in 2024

March 17, 2024 By Nigel Marriott

The 2024 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with Ireland just missing out on a 2nd successive Grand Slam due to a last minute drop goal. Italy recorded their best ever 6 Nations and left Wales with the wooden spoon for the 2nd time ever. France, England and Scotland recorded plusses and minuses during their campaigns and all 3 nations will be seeking to go one better in 2025.

6 Nations History #3 – The men’s story so far in 2023

March 24, 2023 By Nigel Marriott

The 2023 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with Ireland beating England to win their 3rd 6 Nations Grand Slam in the last 15 years. France ran them close and Scotland recorded their 1st top 3 placing since 2018. England & Wales disappointed their fans whilst Italy have some grounds for optimism despite their wooden spoon.

6 Nations History #2 – The men’s story so far in 2022

March 26, 2022 By Nigel Marriott

The 2022 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with France beating England to win their 1st Grand Slam and 6 Nations title since 2010. Ireland ran them close scoring 24 tries in all (joint 2nd highest on record) and Italy won their 1st game in 36 matches in dramatic fashion in Cardiff. England, Wales and Scotland all disappointed their fans and have questions to answer.

6 Nations History #1 – The men’s story so far in 2021

March 27, 2021 By Nigel Marriott

The 2021 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with Wales winning the title after Scotland beat France in Paris to snuff out France’s attempt to win the title for the first time since 2010. Wales let a Grand Slam slip after conceding a try in injury time and as an England fan who was there at Wembley in 1999 I know exactly how the Welsh feel!

6 Nations #12 – Who will win in 2018? – Week 5

March 17, 2018 By Nigel Marriott

We now know the answer to who will win the 2018 6 Nations Championship. Ireland won the title with a match to spare after England failure against France resulted in my second forecasting error of the championship. There is still much to play for though in the last week with the main question being whether England do to Ireland what Ireland did to England last year and stop them from winning a Grand Slam. Whilst I am cheering on England, it is St. Patricks Day and I do have some Irish blood in me so part of me does wish Ireland well.

6 Nations #11 – Who will win in 2018? – Week 4

March 9, 2018 By Nigel Marriott

Be careful of what you wish for! Two weeks ago, I said I was hoping for an error in my predictions based on World Rugby’s rankings and I finally got one and it was Scotland overturning my team England …

6 Nations #10 – Who will win in 2018? – Week 3

February 23, 2018 By Nigel Marriott

After two weeks of the 2018 6 Nations, all 6 of my match predictions have been correct. Whilst this might be vindication of the World Rugby ranking model, the last thing we want in sport is a perfect prediction model otherwise what’s the point? Where would be the excitement of watching sport live? So I am hoping for an incorrect prediction soon …

6 Nations #9 – Who will win in 2018? – Week 2

February 9, 2018 By Nigel Marriott

The 2018 6 Nations is underway and all of my predictions for week 1 turned out to be correct (just!) with the help of an amazing drop goal drop goal by Johnny Sexton. This means that out of 37 matches I have used rankings to make predictions, 30 have been correct.

6 Nations #8 – Who will win in 2018? – Week 1

February 2, 2018 By Nigel Marriott

The 2018 6 Nations begins tomorrow and fans will be looking forward to a feast of rugby for the next two months. As always, pundits galore are making their predictions and the one thing we can count on is that some will have egg on their faces by the time it is over. In 2017, I used World Rugby’s Rankings to predict who would win each match in the 6 Nations and the Autumn Internationals and these predictions worked out well with 12 out of 15 6 Nations games and 15 out of the 19 Autumn International matches involving 6 Nations teams correctly called.