2007 Six Nations Championship

2007 Six Nations Championship
France, the champions, defending here against Wales; Stade de France, Paris, 24/02/2007.
Date	3 February – 17 March 2007
Countries	England  France  Ireland  Italy  Scotland  Wales
Tournament statistics
Champions	France (16th title)
Triple Crown	Ireland (9th title)
Calcutta Cup	England
Millennium Trophy	Ireland
Centenary Quaich	Ireland
Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy	France
Matches played	15
Tries scored	65 (4.33 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Ronan O'Gara (82)
Top try scorer(s)	Jason Robinson (4) Ronan O'Gara (4)
Player of the tournament	Brian O'Driscoll
← 2006 (Previous) (Next) 2008 →

The 2007 RBS 6 Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. 15 matches were played over five weekends from 3 February to 17 March.

In this year, France again won on points difference, after four teams had at least a mathematical chance of topping the table going into the final week. The Italians had their first away win of the tournament beating Scotland in Edinburgh. It was also the first time they won two of their matches as they went on to beat Wales in Rome, finishing in 4th place, their best result so far. Scotland won the wooden spoon and Ireland won the Triple Crown for the second straight year and third time in four years.

Participants

The teams involved were:

Nation	Venue	City	Head coach	Captain
England	Twickenham	London	Brian Ashton	Phil Vickery[1]
France	Stade de France	Saint-Denis	Bernard Laporte	Raphaël Ibañez[2]
Ireland	Croke Park[3]	Dublin	Eddie O'Sullivan	Brian O'Driscoll[4]
Italy	Stadio Flaminio	Rome	Pierre Berbizier	Marco Bortolami
Scotland	Murrayfield	Edinburgh	Frank Hadden	Chris Paterson[5]
Wales	Millennium Stadium	Cardiff	Gareth Jenkins	Stephen Jones[6]

Squads

Final table

Position	Nation	Games				Points				Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference	Tries
1	France	5	4	0	1	155	86	+69	15	8
2	Ireland	5	4	0	1	149	84	+65	17	8
3	England	5	3	0	2	119	115	+4	10	6
4	Italy	5	2	0	3	94	147	−53	9	4
5	Wales	5	1	0	4	86	113	−27	7	2
6	Scotland	5	1	0	4	95	153	−58	7	2

• After Round 4 of the competition, all of the teams had lost at least one match, and as a result no one could win the Grand Slam.
• Ireland won the Triple Crown for the second straight year and third time in four years.

The first four rounds

In the build-up to the competition, Ireland were being tipped as favourites for the Grand Slam, having played well during the Autumn Tests. However, despite having started strongly with a win against Wales, they lost to France 20–17 in an historic encounter at Croke Park.^[7] In turn, Ireland went on to beat England, who subsequently won against France.

Round 3 of the competition saw Italy win their first ever away match in the Six Nations. Scotland conceded three tries (all converted) in the first six minutes, and Italy went on to secure an historic 37–17 victory. In the same round, England's defeat by Ireland at Croke Park 43–13 marked their worst result ever in the history of the tournament, both in number of points conceded and in points difference (30 points).

In round 4, Italy achieved a second victory in the same tournament for the first time, when they defeated Wales 23–20 in Rome in a match that ended in controversy.^[8] Trailing by three points, Wales had the chance to equalise in the closing moments of the game when they were awarded a kickable penalty near the Italian 22-metre line. But, having been informed by the referee that 10 seconds remained, they chose to kick for touch, believing that there was time for an attacking line-out and possible try-scoring opportunity, only for the referee to blow his whistle and end the game before the line-out could form. The Welsh players were incensed and the referee later apologised for the misunderstanding that had arisen.^[9]

Final day

All three matches in week five of the tournament were played on the same day and four teams — France, Ireland, England and Italy — still had a chance of winning the tournament: France were narrowly ahead of Ireland on points difference, England and Italy could become champions if they won by a large margin and the other results favoured them.

The game between Ireland and Italy was played first. At half-time, Ireland led by a single point, but they extended their lead in the second half. As time ran out, Ireland were in possession and could have kicked the ball into touch, ending the game and leaving France requiring a 30-point margin in their game; instead, they opted to seek another try, to set France a bigger target, only for Italy to regain possession and score a converted try, reducing France's target to 23 points.

The second game was between France and Scotland. After starting slowly, France steadily extended their lead, but were still three points short of their target when, with time running out, Elvis Vermeulen scored a try in injury-time, which was converted, to gave France a 27-point victory and put them in the lead in the tournament. The referee referred the try to the Television Match Official (TMO), an Irishman, asking if there was any reason why the try should not be awarded. The TMO advised that there was no reason, and the referee awarded the try.

In the final match, England needed to beat Wales by 57 points to overtake France, while Wales were trying to avoid the wooden spoon. Wales led 15–0 after 15 minutes and 18–15 at half-time, and though England managed to draw level in the second half, James Hook then kicked two penalties and a drop goal, to give Wales the victory by 27–18. This result confirmed France's position as champions and handed the wooden spoon to Scotland, both on points difference.

Results

Week 1

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Week 2

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Week 3

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Week 4

• Ireland won the Triple Crown.

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• First time that Italy reach two victories in a Six Nations Championship.

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• England's victory meant that no team could now win the Grand Slam.

Week 5

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• France needed to win by 24 points to overtake Ireland.

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• England needed to win by 57 points to win the Championship.

Scorers

Leading try scorers Pos Name Tries Pld Team 1 Ronan O'Gara 4 5  Ireland Jason Robinson 4 4  England 3 Girvan Dempsey 3 3  Ireland

Leading point scorers Pos Name Points Pld Team 1 Ronan O'Gara 82 5  Ireland 2 Chris Paterson 65 5  Scotland 3 Jonny Wilkinson 50 3  England

Notes and references

External links

• The official RBS Six Nations Site
• 2007 Six Nations Championship Coverage at the Guardian

Six Nations Championship Teams England France Ireland Italy Scotland Wales Stadiums Twickenham Stade de France Aviva Stadium Stadio Olimpico Murrayfield Millennium Stadium Tournaments Home 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 Five 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 Home 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Five 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Six 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Honours Triple Crown Grand Slam Calcutta Cup Centenary Quaich Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy Millennium Trophy Wooden Spoon Championship records • Hat-tricks • Under 20s Championship • Women's Championship

Rugby union schedule for 2007
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup					World Cup		H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
				Mid-Year Test Series			Pre-RWC tests			End of Year Tests
			Under 19 World Championship		Pacific Nations Cup
Celtic League								Celtic League
			Shute Shield
Top 14									Top 14
Sevens							Australian Rugby Championship			Sevens
				Churchill Cup		Air New Zealand Cup
					Currie Cup
	Super 14				Tri Nations