Your guide to the Six Nations Rugby Tournament and watching it on your phone

By Stuart
January 30, 2019

Are your ready for the Guinness Six Nations?

With the Rugby World Cup due to start in September 2019 this could be the best Six Nations ever. Here’s everything you need to know and some tips on how you can watch the action on your mobile phone.

The current Six Nations Rugby tournament was in effect created in 2000 when Italy were asked to join the Five Nations tournament, Scotland by a stroke of luck can therefore claim to be the current Five Nations holders and will remain so.

England hold the record for outright wins of the Home Nations, Five Nations and Six Nations Rugby 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 Rugby era started in 2000, only Italy and Scotland have failed to win the Six Nations title. The first match this year is to be held in Paris at the Stade de France between France and Wales on Friday 1st February at 8.00pm.

Format

The tournament is contested annually and is pretty simple, every team plays every other team and the team with the most points wins, home ground advantage alternating from one year to the next. The 1st round will set the tone for the rest of the tournament. Will England beat Ireland the favourites away in Dublin?

Scoring

On 30 November 2016, the 6 Nations Committee announced that the bonus point system will be trialled for the 2017 Championship, the system has remained in place ever since. The system is 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 a 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.

Grand Slam, Triple crown

Several individual competitions take place under the umbrella of the tournament.

Calcutta Cup

The oldest such regular competition is for the Calcutta Cup which has been contested annually between England and Scotland since 1879. It is named the Calcutta Cup as it is made from melted-down Indian Rupees donated by the Calcutta Club.

Millennium Trophy

Since 1988, the Millennium Trophy has been awarded to the winner of the game between England and Ireland, and since 1989 the Centenary Quaich has been awarded to the winner of the game between Ireland and Scotland.

Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy

Since 2007, France and Italy have contested the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy; it was created for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian hero who helped unify Italy and volunteered in the French Republican Army against Prussia.

Auld Alliance Trophy

There is also the Auld Alliance Trophy which is contested annually between Scotland and France since 2018 in memory of the war dead from the rugby communities of Scotland and France.

Doddie Weir Cup

Finally announced in 2018 and to be competed for this year is the Doddie Weir Cup, which is to be contested between Scotland and Wales in honour of formed Scotland and Lions Player Doddie Weir, who is battling bravely against motor neurone disease, if you would like to see more about Doddie Weir and his charity fund raising, take a look at his website www.myname5doddie.co.uk

Watching my team

The good news is that all of the Six Nations Rugby is shown on terrestrial TV, therefore if you need to watch it on your phone, all you will need is the best screen available. Buy a new one before it starts with great tariff with a good amount of data. Take a look at our offers here and also take a look at our guides to make the best use of your mobile. Both the BBC and the ITV mobile apps have a short registration process which you will have to do before watching the matches on your phone – make sure you do this before the game starts!

All home games from France, Scotland and Wales are live on BBC
All home games from England, Ireland and Italy are live in ITV

Guinness Six Nations App

Available to download from Google Store for Android or iTunes for iPhone users, the Six Nations app will keep you up to date with all the gossip, news, scores and interviews about the Six Nations. You can register for offers and set your team preference in the setup process or skip it all and get straight to the app.

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