Grand Slam (rugby union)

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In Rugby Union, a Grand Slam occurs when one team in the Six Nations Championship (or its predecessors) manages to beat all the others during one year's competition. The last team to have won the Six Nations Grand Slam was Ireland in 2009.

Contents 1 Six Nations Championship 1.1 List of Grand Slam Winners 2 Grand Slam Tour 3 List of Grand Slam tours (against all four Home Nations) 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Six Nations Championship

In the Six Nations Championship and its predecessors, a grand slam is where one team beats all its opponents during one year's competition. [1] The Grand Slam winners are awarded the Six Nations trophy (as tournament winners), but there is no special grand slam trophy. The Grand Slam is just a matter of pride over glory.

Although the term Grand Slam had long been in use in the game of Contract Bridge, the first time that the expression is known to have been applied to rugby union was in 1957, in a preview of a match between England and Scotland:

There is much more than usual at stake for England to-day in the match against Scotland at Twickenham ...

The last time when England achieved the Grand Slam under present conditions was as long ago as the 1927-28 season, but it is difficult to try to build up a case against her repeating the performance to-day.

—The Times, 16 March 1957

Three teams — Wales in 1908 and 09, England in 1913 and 14, 1923 and 24 and 1991 and 92, and France in 1997 and 98 — have won two consecutive Grand Slams; no team has yet achieved three consecutive Grand Slams.

Prior to 2000, each team played four matches, two at home and two away from home. Following the inclusion of Italy in 2000, each team plays five matches, two at home and three away in one year, and the opposite in the following season. When Wales won the Grand Slam in 2005, it was the first time that the feat had been achieved by a team that had played more matches away than at home. This was repeated in 2009 with Ireland winning matches away to Italy, Scotland and Wales. The Welsh Grand Slam in 2008 saw them become the second team to win two Grand Slams in the Six Nations, but the first to do so with both three away games and two home games.

The Grand Slam has been achieved 35 times — England leads, with 12 wins, followed by Wales (10), France (8), Scotland (3) and Ireland (2). Italy has yet to win a Grand Slam, but has also only been in the tournament for a decade.

In Welsh, the Grand Slam is called Y Gamp Lawn, in French Le Grand Chelem.

Nation	W	Grand Slam Season
England	12	1913, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1957, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2003
Wales	10	1908, 1909, 1911, 1950, 1952, 1971, 1976, 1978, 2005, 2008
France	8	1968, 1977, 1981, 1987, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004
Scotland	3	1925, 1984, 1990
Ireland	2	1948, 2009
Italy	0

[edit] List of Grand Slam Winners

1882–1907	France did not take part in the championship
1908	Wales
1909	Wales
1911	Wales
1913	England
1914	England
1915–19	No tournament during World War I
1921	England
1923	England
1924	England
1925	Scotland
1928	England
1932–39	France was suspended from the championship
1940–46	No tournament during World War II
1948	Ireland
1950	Wales
1952	Wales
1957	England
1968	France
1971	Wales
1976	Wales
1977	France
1978	Wales
1980	England
1981	France
1984	Scotland
1987	France
1990	Scotland
1991	England
1992	England
1995	England
1997	France
1998	France
2000	Tournament expanded to include Italy.
2002	France[1]
2003	England[2]
2004	France[3]
2005	Wales[4]
2008	Wales[5]
2009	Ireland[6]

Similar in concept to the Grand Slam is the Triple Crown, which is won if a team from one of the Home Nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) manages to beat the other three teams. The Triple Crown was won most recently by Ireland, in 2009, as part of their Six Nations Grand Slam victory.

[edit] Grand Slam Tour

A Grand Slam tour is one in which a touring side plays Test matches against the four Home Nations: England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. If the tourists win all four games, they are said to have achieved a grand slam. There is no official guidance from the IRB on what the concept of a grand slam tour implies—for example, whether a touring team that achieves a win against all the current Six Nations participants (the Home Nations plus France and Italy) in the same tour should be deemed to have achieved a "true Grand Slam".

No team touring Europe has ever attempted a "true Grand Slam", much less achieved it, in the Six Nations era (after Italy's admission to that competition in 2000). However, wins against all four Home Nations in the same tour have been achieved four times by South Africa, three times by New Zealand and once by Australia, who has the record of being the only Southern Hemisphere team to suffer a grand slam of defeats against the Home Nations, in 1957–58.

South Africa have the distinction of being the only team to have achieved the Grand Slam against the Five Nations: in the Grand Slam tours of 1912–13 and 1951–52, the Springboks also played and defeated France.

South Africa	1912–13, 1931–32, 1951–52, 1960–61
New Zealand	1978, 2005, 2008
Australia	1984

Because of the congested schedule in international rugby, grand slam tours may become less common. The last successful grand slam tour was in 2008, when New Zealand achieved their third grand slam. The All Blacks' previous Grand Slam tour, in 2005, was originally intended to include only three Test matches; only the late inclusion of the game against Wales made it possible for the All Blacks even to contemplate winning the grand slam. In addition, New Zealand played only test matches in 2005 and played only one non-test in 2008, as opposed to frequent midweek and weekend tour games against provincial sides which categorised other Grand Slam tours.

[edit] List of Grand Slam tours (against all four Home Nations)

Successful tours (in which all four Home Nations were defeated) are indicated with a green check mark.

Teams	Achieved	Year
New Zealand		1905-1906
South Africa		1906
South Africa	Y	1912-1913
Australia		1927-1928
South Africa	Y	1931-1932
New Zealand		1935-1936
Australia		1947-1948
South Africa	Y	1951-1952
New Zealand		1953-1954
Australia		1958
South Africa	Y	1960-1961
New Zealand		1963-1964
Australia		1966-1967
South Africa		1969-1970
New Zealand		1972-1973
Australia		1975-1976
New Zealand	Y	1978
Australia		1981-1982
Australia	Y	1984
South Africa		1998
South Africa		2004
New Zealand	Y	2005
New Zealand	Y	2008
Australia		2009

[edit] See also

• Six Nations Championship
• Triple Crown
• Wooden Spoon
• Calcutta Cup

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC News article on past Grand Slam tours
• The Official Six Nations Site
• 2008 Six Nations Information and Tournament Guide