Founded in 1996 as the Women’s Home Nations Championship, the tournament has grown significantly over the last thirty years. This is the tale of the seven nations that have made up the Six Nations.
From the advent of international women’s rugby in the 1980s, regular game time at the international level was a struggle. Only 132 test matches took place between 1982 and 1996, with 48 of those matches being Rugby World Cup games. European competitions held by FIRA1 were inconsistent, having only been held twice since their inception in 1988. Between 1992 and 1994, each of the Home Nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales set up their own women’s rugby union, leading to the end of the joint Women’s Rugby Football Union. Despite the dissolution of a joint governing body, the four nations continued to work closely, forming the annual Women’s Home Nations contest in 1996.
‘I played for England for fourteen seasons and it was getting frustrating towards the ninth, tenth, eleventh year of my career because that was certainly the time, around the ’96 sort of time, I was England captain at the time and I used to get frustrated at the time by a lack of recognition. I did feel that that season was a big breakthrough.’
-Gill Burns, England Captain, 20162
The inaugural Women’s Home Nations Championship brought a level of respectability to the women’s game which had not been seen before, despite two World Cups having been held in the UK. 1995 had seen particular lows for the World Champions England, as they played just one match and their male counterparts declined to attend a dinner in honour of the World Cup win3. Wales and Scotland were also lacking game time, whilst Ireland had only managed to play eight international games in total4. However, with the inception of the Home Nations, the women’s unions faced an influx of support. The Welsh Women’s Rugby Football Union were given a £20,000 investment from J&J Motors of Llanelli, to be used for the development of the women’s rugby pathway in Wales, just a week before their clash against Scotland5. Whilst England dominated on the pitch, Welsh newspaper coverage of the competition was second to none. Scotland and Ireland were not granted the same recognition, but nonetheless, the three Celtic nations managed to all finish joint second with one game won each. England managed to win the contest with a Triple Crown and, uniquely, a Grand Slam. Unlike in the Men’s contest, in which the Grand Slam was not added until regular matches against France commenced in 1908, the Grand Slam has been in contention since the inception of the Women’s competition.
The 1998 contest was the last Women’s Home Nations; it was also the first contest in which England was not crowned the winners, and the only time in which Scotland would top the table. Despite bizarre press coverage, which often referred to the contest as the Five Nations rather than the Home Nations6, and facing what was reported as Scotland’s first sending off in international rugby7, the Scots managed to nil Ireland, put ten on Wales and squeak past England to win the title. They also demolished France at Raeburn Place in February8, perhaps leading to the confusion of contemporary newspapers.
The following few years would prove to be a period of great upheaval for the Championship. In 1999, France officially entered for the first time, beating all teams bar England for a second-place finish. In 2000, Ireland became the first, and so far only, country to willingly leave the contest without any outside influence. Having struggled to make any real improvements and recording three straight wooden spoons, the Irish Women’s Rugby Football Union made the tough decision to exit the competition after 1999 to focus on developing their domestic leagues. In a time when players paid for the privilege to represent their nation, and England-based players dominated the Irish side, it made sense to take a step back. In their place, it was decided that the next highest-ranked European side would take their place: Spain.
Whilst Italy entered the Men’s version of the competition in the same year, and Italy’s women’s side was fairly well developed, Las Leonas had been a dominant force in European rugby during the 1990s9. Unfortunately for Spain, they managed to win just ten games during their seven-year tenure and were the proud owners of two wooden spoons. Ireland rejoined the contest in 2002 to create the Six Nations, leading to a relatively calm five-year period in which England, Ireland, France, Scotland, Spain and Wales battled for the title, although only France and England would be victorious.
The 2006 edition was the last independent Women’s Six Nations. Since its inception in 1996, the competition had been run by the women’s rugby unions with no input from the Men’s Six Nations competition organisers. However, with many of the women’s unions merging9 with their national unions, it was decided that the women’s contest would come under the same organising powers as both the senior and under-20s men’s competitions. This change of organising body led to a decision which still proves to be controversial in many women’s rugby spheres, as Spain was replaced by Italy. The official reason given was for the contests to mirror each other. However, with the women’s sides experiencing significantly worse playing conditions, no pay and very little media exposure, ‘mirrored’ competitions felt shallow and disengenious.
The one benefit of coming under the wider Six Nations umbrella was the introduction of a Six Nations trophy10, an expense which had not been possible under the previous organisation. Handed out for the first time in 2008, the original Thomas Lyte trophy was rather basic. Made of sterling silver and featuring the emblems of the six competing countries, the original trophy was in use until 2023.
The slow growth of the Women’s Six Nations during the 2010’s is exceptionally unfortunate and had many causes. Despite hopeful moments, there was still a general apathy towards women’s sport, which caused poor investment and poor marketing of the contest. Television coverage of the Women’s Six Nations had always been sporadic11; however, in 2011 England v Scotland was shown live on the BBC, with England v France being shown behind a paywall on Sky and France v Scotland on France’s Orange TV. By 2014, all teams bar Wales were broadcasting or streaming at least one of their games12, and by 2016, all games were broadcast or streamed in some capacity13. The coverage was still sporadic, with varying levels of broadcast quality, and the availability of games in certain locations was questionable. Games often clashed with Men’s Six Nations fixtures, as well as other Women’s Six Nations fixtures, and were hidden away on streaming platforms. Anecdotally, it was not uncommon for Wales games to be advertised as being shown on S4C, but in reality, they were being livestreamed on the S4C YouTube channel only. Improvements were seen in 2021 as the BBC bought the rights to the Women’s Six Nations in the UK; however, many non-England games continue to be hidden away on iPlayer. 2025 saw the Italian games shown on free-to-air tv channel RAI for the first time, with the broadcaster sublicensing the rights from Sky14.
Whilst the 2010’s saw stuttering growth off the pitch, Ireland saw huge on-pitch growth between 2012 and 2015, becoming the fourth nation to win the competition. Achieving a Grand Slam in 2013 and lifting the trophy again in 2015 despite a narrow loss to reigning Grand Slam Champions France. Whilst the golden era of Irish rugby did not last, it has provided us with a great insight into the reality of amateur international rugby in the 21st century.
The 2020 and 2021 seasons would go on to change the Women’s Six Nations and women’s rugby forever, finally giving the competition the conditions to thrive, albeit accidentally. The 2020 contest was somewhat of a damp squib from the get-go. Whilst the first weekend went off without a hitch, weekend two was plagued by bad weather. Ireland’s home game against Wales had to be paused to wait for hail and heavy rain to ease off, whilst Scotland’s eventual home loss to England was moved behind closed doors the following Monday due to the same inclement weather. Incidentally, that game would become the first time the Scottish Women ‘headlined’ Murrayfield15. Week three saw the first Covid-affected games as Scotland were forced to travel home from Italy without playing a game16. Week four saw two postponements, and week five was postponed entirely as the world shut down. Whilst the tournament would be resumed in the autumn, and England would be given the Grand Slam for winning five games, Scotland’s games against Wales and Italy would never be played, whilst France and Ireland also did not face each other that year.
The 2021 edition of the Women’s Six Nations was played in a condensed format in April of that year17. Required to take place, due to the World Cup planned for later that year18, the Six Nations was played in the pool style format that many journalists had spent years calling for. Due to the domination of England for most of the competition, English journalists had frequently called for a tiered or pool stage style contest with a ‘final’ game. When this took place in 2021, it proved to be exceptionally unpopular amongst fans and even organisers. However, the 2021 Six Nations did prove to be one of the most successful in terms of viewing figures, which was broadcast in its entirety on the BBC for the first time. With the contest being held in its own window, away from the men’s, and an increased appetite for televised and women’s sport due to lockdown measures, the contest was a success19.
One of the major difficulties in rescheduling the 2020 competition and organising the 2021 edition during a global pandemic was the fact that the women’s game was still predominantly amateur. Whilst England and France had professionalised their programmes with the introduction of rugby sevens to the Olympics, as well as the development of their domestic leagues, all countries had players with non-rugby playing jobs. For many countries, they had medical professionals within their squads who were needed in their home nations during the pandemic. Beyond that, it was impossible to properly ‘bubble’ teams for long periods due to the fact that players had outside jobs. Beginning with Wales in 2022, the other four nations began to offer central contracts for players. However, in 2026, there are still amateur and semi-professional players representing their nations in the Women’s Six Nations.
Since 2022, the Women’s Six Nations has seen rapid growth, arguably leading the way in terms of record attendances and professionalism. We also saw an updated trophy in 202420 and a modern rebranding. 2026 will see a record number of games in national stadia, as well as the first rivalry cup with the Soldarity Trophy between Ireland and France21. There is still room for growth, with equatable broadcast quality between nations still needed22 and unions understanding the needs of their players and fans23. Despite the development that it still needed, the 2026 Six Nations is a far cry from 2020, when players were forced to shower in cold water, or 2015, when the grassroots club had forgotten to keep the floodlights on.
The Women’s Six Nations is one of my favourite things to yap about, so I do hope you enjoyed this. This is just a very brief overview as a part of a wider series I am working on about the Women’s Six Nations. If you would like a closer look at either Spain or Ireland you can find them on the site. I have also collated a Six Nations result spreadsheet and a spreadsheet of the 2026 squad lists if you are so inclined. I will say they are not perfect and may have some mistakes, as I am yet to triple-check them, but based on feedback from Women’s Rugby Treehouse listeners, it is what the people want!
I hope that you have enjoyed this post. If you would like more regular updates, please check out my Instagram, Twitter, and/or Bluesky. I’ve also recently started a Facebook page (I’m not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea) if that’s more your vibe. You can also catch me podding every Tuesday morning with WRRAP or with Women’s Rugby Treehouse somewhat regularly. An audio version of this post is also available in all good podcasting locations, and video versions are now available on YouTube and Spotify. As always, references are below.
-Hattie
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- Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur, later Rugby Europe. ↩︎
- Robert Nicholson and Gill Burns, “Sporting Witness – Women’s Rugby Pioneers – BBC Sounds,” BBC (BBC, November 26, 2016) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04gyg7p>. ↩︎
- Nicholson and Burns, “Sporting Witness – Women’s Rugby Pioneers – BBC Sounds.” ↩︎
- Ali Donnelly, Scrum Queens (Pitch Publishing, 2020), pp 92. ↩︎
- “Backing for Women’s Rugby,” South Wales Argus, February 14, 1996, p. 16. ↩︎
- Aitken, Vivienne, “I’m a Hooker,” The Daily Record, March 21, 1998, pp. 10–11. ↩︎
- Rennie, Alan, “Scottish International Ali McGrandles, the First Scot to Be Sent off in International Rugby, Has Been Banned for 30 Days by the Scottish Women’s Rugby Union.,” Stirling Observer, March 6, 1998, p. 24 ↩︎
- “Womens Internationals” https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D8Tn1I8fSyXhV-ufNTEeBLGKoxAgF0POOs4SrIIWRIk/edit?usp=sharing. ↩︎
- Or submitting to the far larger power. ↩︎
- Thomas Lyte, “Makers of the Women’s Six Nations Trophy – Thomas Lyte,” Thomas Lyte, May 23, 2025 <https://thomaslyte.com/womens-six-nations-trophy-designers-makers/>. ↩︎
- Scrum Queens, “Sky to Broadcast England V France Clash,” Scrum Queens, December 10, 2010 <https://web.archive.org/web/20110716022833/https://www.scrumqueens.com/news/615-sky-to-broadcast-england-v-france-clash.html>. ↩︎
- Donnelly, Scrum Queens, pp. 244. ↩︎
- Donnelly, Scrum Queens, pp. 246. ↩︎
- Julian Clover, “RAI Sublicenses Six Nations Rugby from Sky Italia,” Broadband TV News, January 17, 2025 <https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2025/01/17/rai-sublicenses-six-nations-rugby-from-sky-italia/>. ↩︎
- Albeit behind closed doors and with a move of stadia due to the storm. ↩︎
- Martha Vaughan, “Scotland Rugby Game and Venice’s Carnival Cancelled as Towns on Lockdown,” The Herald, February 24, 2020. ↩︎
- Sarah Rendell, “Women’s Six Nations Remaining Separate to Men’s ‘a Great Idea,’” The Guardian, March 31, 2021. ↩︎
- The 2021 Rugby World Cup would be postponed until 2022. ↩︎
- World Rugby Museum, “How the COVID-19 Pandemic Helped Transform Women’s Rugby,” World Rugby Museum, April 6, 2026 <https://worldrugbymuseum.com/from-the-vaults/womens-rugby/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-helped-transform-womens-rugby>. ↩︎
- Liam, “Redefining Rugby: The Women’s Six Nations Trophy,” Thomas Lyte, April 17, 2024 <https://thomaslyte.com/womens-six-nations-trophy-redefining-rugby/>. ↩︎
- Rumours of a ‘Cattigan Cup’ between Scotland and Ireland have simmered for years, with both nations blaming the other for its failure to appear. ↩︎
- Dear BBC, please stop hiding games on iPlayer or giving some games only five minutes of build-up. ↩︎
- It’s ok that Wales can’t pack the prinny but have outgrown CAP, have a game at Parc y Scarlets! ↩︎
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