Champions Wales (26th title) Millennium Trophy England | Calcutta Cup England Centenary Quaich Scotland | |
 | ||
Date 2 February 2013 – 16 March 2013 Countries England
France
Ireland
Italy
Scotland
Wales | ||
The 2013 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2013 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 14th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.
Contents
Including the competition's previous incarnations as the Home Nations Championship and Five Nations Championship, it was the 119th edition of the tournament. Wales won the tournament for the second time in two years, the first time they had won back-to-back championships since their 1978 and 1979 wins. France collected the wooden spoon by finishing last for the first time since 1999. It was also the first time every team managed to win at least 3 competition points (the equivalent of a win and a draw or three draws) since 1974.
Participants
1 Except the opening match against Italy where Pascal Papé was the captain but was ruled out of the next two matches due to injury. On 1 March, it was officially announced that Papé would miss the remaining matches in the Six Nations and that Thierry Dusautoir would continue as captain.
2 Except the week 3 match as he was originally ruled out of the Six Nations from that week onwards due to being handed a 40-day ban after being red carded for insulting a referee while playing for his club Stade Francais in the French Top 14. Martin Castrogiovanni was captain of that match. Parisse later returned after Italy appealed his ban, and the FFR agreed to reduce his suspension to 20 days and therefore became eligible to play England and Ireland.
3 Except the opening week match against Ireland as he did not feature and Sam Warburton was captain but was ruled out of the French match in week 2 which led to Ryan Jones taking over captaincy for that match. When Warburton returned against Italy, Jones took over the captaincy for the remaining matches against Italy, Scotland and England. However, a shoulder injury sustained against Scotland meant that Gethin Jenkins was appointed captain for the final game against England.
Overview
At the start of the 2013 Six Nations Championships England were favoured to win by many pundits after they beat the world champion New Zealand team in December 2012. France, enjoying a winning streak prior to the competition, were also considered strong contenders. In contrast defending champions Wales had suffered seven consecutive defeats (4 versus Australia) and were without their regular head coach Warren Gatland. Expectations regarding England and Wales were confirmed in the first round of matches, played on 2 February, with England enjoying a convincing 38–18 victory against Scotland and Wales losing 22–30 against Ireland despite a Welsh comeback from 3-30 down just after half time. France however were upset in their first game, going down 23–18 against Italy. The following week both England and Wales won their matches, against Ireland and France respectively. Scotland meanwhile beat Italy 34–10 in the other game, their first Six Nations victory since 2011. In week three Wales roundly defeated Italy 9–26 and England beat France 23–13. In the remaining match, Scotland defeated Ireland for a second consecutive victory. Wales won their week four clash against Scotland 26-13 and in the process achieved a record fifth consecutive away win in the Six Nations. England remained undefeated after beating Italy 18-11. Ireland and France tied 13–13, giving France their first points in the competition.
England having won all four matches to this point (on 8 points) and Wales with three victories (6 points) meant that their match against each other in the final week, on 16 March, would determine the champions. A victory by Wales would give them two points and put them on equal footing with England. If they won by more than seven points they would move ahead on points differential and retain the title. England were slight favourites heading into the game due to their unbeaten run, although Wales had the advantage of a more experienced side and playing at home in the Millennium Stadium. Going into the final round Scotland were on 4 points, Ireland on 3, Italy on 2 and France on 1. Italy ended up beating Ireland and Scotland lost to France, giving Scotland and Italy 4 points each (with Scotland finishing ahead on points differential) and Ireland and France 3 points each (with Ireland finishing ahead on points differential). France ended up with the wooden spoon, the first time they had finished last in the competition since 1999.
Wales defeated England by an emphatic 30–3, their biggest ever win over England. At half time Wales had just a 9-3 lead, with three penalties to fullback Leigh Halfpenny against one from England's Owen Farrell. The first 20 minutes of the second half saw Wales score points through a try to winger Alex Cuthbert, and another penalty goal to Halfpenny. This gave them a comfortable 17-3 lead heading into the last quarter of the game. Wales fly half Dan Biggar dropped a goal, which was then followed by a second try to Cuthbert in the 66th minute to put the game beyond England. Biggar kicked a final penalty with 10 minutes to go to give Wales their 30–3 victory. Wales coach Rob Howley described the victory as a better achievement than their 2012 Grand Slam and Welsh captain Sam Warburton described the win as the "best moment" of his career. England coach Stuart Lancaster admitted that his side "didn't turn up" to their final match.
Fixtures
As with the 2012 Six Nations Championship, there were no Friday night fixtures.
Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 4
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Week 5
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Media coverage
In the United Kingdom, BBC One televised the all matches live apart from the week five match between France and Scotland which was televised live on both BBC HD and BBC Two. The week one match between Italy and France which started at 2:25pm in the Channel Islands, HD. London, North East & Cumbria, Northern Ireland HD, Oxfordshire and Wales HD only started twenty five minutes later in Scotland and Scotland HD only, the week two match between Scotland and Italy was not on Scotland and the week four match between England and Italy not on in the South East. There was also a forum show on the BBC Red Button for satellite and cable viewers as well as Freeview viewers after the second week one match between England and Scotland and a day later after the last week one match between Italy and France, the last week two match between Ireland and England, the last week three match between Scotland and Ireland, the last week four match between England and Italy and the second week five match between Wales and England. Four days after the conclusion of the tournament, there was a highlights programme called “Wales v England: We Did It!” televised at 10:50pm on BBC One but only in Wales and Wales HD.
In Wales, only Wales matches were televised live in Welsh language by S4C.
Elsewhere, the tournament's matches were televised live by RTÉ in Ireland, France Télévisions in France, Sky Italia in Italy, ESPN in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Japan, SuperSport in South Africa, ESPN+ in Latin America, ESPN Brasil in Brazil, Setanta Sports Asia in Southeast Asia, Dolce Sport in Romania, Nova Sports in Greece, Sport TV in Portugal, Sport 1 in eastern Europe as well as Channel 9, Arena Sport TV and Canal+.
In the United States, BBC America televised one match from each week live while Universal Sports televised all the matches in delay as did Sportsnet World in Canada.