Triple Crown (rugby union) Totally Explained

Everything about Triple Crown Rugby Union totally explained

In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the national teams of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales as part of the Six Nations Championship. If any one team manages to win all their games against the other three then they win the Triple Crown.This was most recently achieved by Wales in the 2008 competition.
   The Six Nations Championship also involves France and Italy, but they don't take part in the Triple Crown.
   Unlike the Grand Slam, the triple crown winners won't necessarily be the tournament winners. This happened most recently in 2007 as Ireland won the triple crown, but France were the tournament winners. In 2004, Ireland were triple crown winners and France were Grand Slam winners.
   Two teams have achieved the triple crown 4 years consecutively: Wales 1976 - 1979, and England 1995 - 1998. No other teams have won the triple crown more than twice in a row.

Name

No-one is sure what the origins of the name 'Triple Crown' are. The Irish Times has the first recorded use of the term in its introduction to the newspapers Ireland v Wales match report on Monday, 12 March 1894: After long years of seemingly hopeful struggle Ireland has achieved the triple crown honours of Rugby football. For the first time in the annals of the game have the Hibernians proved beyond cavil or doubt their right to be dubbed champions of the nations and that the Irishmen fully deserve the great distinction no one will deny … Hurrah for Hibernia! The name presumably derives from the fact that the winners will have beaten all the nations of the United Kingdom, which is composed of the Kingdom of Ireland (now only Northern Ireland), the Kingdom of Scotland, the Kingdom of England and the Principality of Wales, for example three kingdoms.

Trophy

In 1975 a retired miner by the name of Dave Merrington from South Hetton, County Durham got to work with his penknife and turned a lump of coal hewn from the Haig Colliery in Cumbria into a surprisingly ornate work. It has a crown sitting on a four-sided base on which are represented a rose, a shamrock, a thistle and the Prince of Wales feathers.
it It is kept in the Museum of Rugby at Twickenham.
As no trophy was historically awarded for winning the Triple Crown, it was often called 'the visible cup'. However, in 2006, the primary sponsor of the competition, the Royal Bank of Scotland, commissioned a trophy to be awarded to Triple Crown winners. The award, a silver dish known as the Triple Crown Trophy, was contested for the first time in the 2007 Six Nations. Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll claimed the trophy for Ireland at Twickenham on March 18 after a last-minute try from Shane Horgan gave Ireland a 28-56 win over England.

Winners

	23	1883, 1884, 1892, 1913, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1934, 1937, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003
	19	1893, 1900, 1902, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1950, 1952, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1988, 2005, 2008
	10	1891, 1895, 1901, 1903, 1907, 1925, 1933, 1938, 1984, 1990
	9	1894, 1899, 1948, 1949, 1982, 1985, 2004, 2006, 2007

1883
1884
1885	Not achieved
1886	Not achieved
1887	Not achieved
1888	Not achieved
1889	Not achieved
1890	Not achieved
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896	Not achieved
1897	Not achieved
1898	Not achieved
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904	Not achieved
1905
1906	Not achieved
1907
1908
1909
1910	Not achieved
1911
1912	Not achieved
1913
1914
1915-19	Not held due to World War I
1920	Not achieved
1921
1922	Not achieved
1923
1924
1925
1926	Not achieved
1927	Not achieved
1928
1929	Not achieved
1930	Not achieved
1931	Not achieved
1932	Not achieved
1933
1934
1935	Not achieved
1936	Not achieved
1937
1938
1939	Not achieved
1940–46	Not held due to World War II
1947	Not achieved
1948
1949
1950
1951	Not achieved
1952
1953	Not achieved
1954
1955	Not achieved
1956	Not achieved
1957
1958	Not achieved
1959	Not achieved
1960
1961	Not achieved
1962	Not achieved
1963	Not achieved
1964	Not achieved
1965
1966	Not achieved
1967	Not achieved
1968	Not achieved
1969
1970	Not achieved
1971
1972	Not achieved
1973	Not achieved
1974	Not achieved
1975	Not achieved
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981	Not achieved
1982
1983	Not achieved
1984
1985
1986	Not achieved
1987	Not achieved
1988
1989	Not achieved
1990
1991
1992
1993	Not achieved
1994	Not achieved
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999	Not achieved
2000	Not achieved
2001	Not achieved
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

Further Information

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