Five Nations Championship

The Five Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving five European sides: England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Home Nations
The competition began in 1883 with the home nations creating a competition that would be created between the four home nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. So in 1883 the first Home Nations Championship was born with England winning the first three tournaments. But after the IRB was created in 1887, the English Football Union wouldn't compete in the 1888 and 1889 editions of the tournament. When England returned in 1890, the title was shared between all four home nations for the next 13 years with at least one time or another each nation having the trophy. In 1903, Scotland won the first of three in a row with them going on an eight game winning streak until a lost in the first game of the 1906 season, stopped that run in its tracks. Ireland took the opportunity and went with it, taking the 1906 trophy. Scotland regained it, the next year before the Welsh took the victory before a change into a five team competition.

France joins the competition
Throughout 1906-1908, France played in a couple of matches between the British nation during the year. It wasn't until 1909 where France would finally join the competition. For France they struggled in the opening four years while Wales and England dominated the period until the first World War which would stop the competition for five years during that time. When the competition came back in 1920 the shift of momentum happened with France starting to be contention and winning some games while England and Wales struggled to gain hope with most of the top players of the time killed during the first World War. Ireland took the trophy for the first time since 1906 in 1922 when they defeated the two time defending champions, Scotland in the final match of the competition at Edinburgh.

Johnnie Wallace then created history in 1924 as he scored a try in each of the four games to not only lead Scotland to the trophy but creating a bit of history by being the first person to do that feat. The next year, France took home their first Five Nations title when they defeated England in the final game of the tournament to win take home the trophy as it also became the first time that the Grand Slam and Triple Crown wasn't won at the same time with Scotland winning the Triple Crown. Wales then won, for the first time since 1914, in 1928 when they defeated England in the final match of the tournament which was the first for 14 years. After Scotland regained it, the next year, Ireland retook the championship by a game to spare as they won three in a row. France though would be expelled from the competition as professionalism started to creep into the game over at France and wouldn't return until 1955.

Back to four nations
With it back to the home nations for the 1933 edition, the grand slam was now out of play. But during the seven years before the second world war, all four nations took at least one Home Nations championship with England winning in 1934 and 1935. Scotland though won the Triple Crown twice when they took the 1933 and 1938 before the war took hold of Europe for five years. After the war, the home nations competed in the 1947 edition with the Welsh taking out the trophy by point difference. Ireland would take out the next two editions with the triple crown being won over both occasions.

Return to Five
With France coming back into the competition in 1950, the competition expanded back into a five-team competition and the Welsh took out the Grand Slam. The Irish and Welsh would each take out the titles throughout the early 50s. The English did try and take the title in both 1953 and 1954 but they would fall short on each occasion as they would come in second place with the 1954 edition being played earlier in the year due to the Rugby World Cup which took placed in England. The following year, France missed out by a single point after the Welsh ended with a 16-11 victory in the final game at Paris to take their fourth title in six years. After England took out the grand slam in 1957, the Welsh would take their last win for 20 years with a lucky 9-6 win over Ireland.

But Ireland wold get their revenge as they took out the 1959 title before France won three at the start of the 60s which included a Grand Slam in 1961. Though this run would come up short with the Scottish winning what some would say being the closest tournament to date with one point separating all five teams and was only confirmed when Wales defeated France in the final game of the 1963 season in Paris.

Champions
The same until 1904 with the POD