Women’s 6 Nations.
The Women’s Six Nations Championship is an international rugby union competition contested between six European women’s national teams. It started in the 1995/96 season as the Home Nations, just all four home nations. It remained a Home Nations competition in the 1996/97 and the 1997/98 seasons, which was a World Cup Year.
In the 1998/99 season it became the Five nations with England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales playing. The following season, Spain replaced Ireland for two seasons.
#WRD are planning to add these earlier competitions to the website in due course.
In 2001/02 the women’s Six Nations competition was born with England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Spain and Wales playing, after Ireland rejoined the competition. Spain, at that time, were higher ranked than Italy and therefore deserved their place in the competition on merit.
In 2006, a championship trophy was commissioned from silversmith Thomas Lyte, to be followed by a second trophy commissioned for the Under 20 Six Nations championship. Designed and created by Thomas Lyte, the trophies are made from sterling silver and feature engraving detail with the logos of the competing countries.
In 2007, the Six Nations committee formally adopted for Italy to replace Spain as the sixth national team member in the championship, in parallel with the men’s competition.