LONG READ 25 Six Nations Memorable Moments: 10 to 6

As this year’s men’s Six Nations enters the home straight over the next fortnight, RugbyPass highlights some of the championship’s most iconic and outlandish moments, 25 years after the old Five Nations became Six. We are counting down with contributions from Owain Jones (OJ), Jamie Lyall (JL), Bryn Palmer (BP), Neil Squires (NS) and Pat McCarry (PM).

10. Stadium rocks as Wales storm to record win over England – and 2013 title

England, led by Chris Robshaw, marched into Cardiff with a Grand Slam, Triple Crown and Six Nations Championship at stake. Yet by the time they left the Welsh capital, they were bedraggled and crestfallen, as all three had been unceremoniously yanked from their grasp by an unrelenting Welsh side who were looking not only to spoil their great rivals’ party, but to move from the boarding gate, to business class seats, on the 2013 Lions Tour.

The game will be forever remembered for a stirring rendition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (the Welsh national anthem) that raised hairs on the back of the neck, before Sam Warburton led his fired-up team-mates into battle.

A cagey, attritional contest ensued before the game burst into life with Alex Cuthbert scorching around Mike Brown to score, but the coup de grace occurred when Leigh Halfpenny freed Justin Tipuric down the right flank to dummy Brown and pop a pass to Cuthbert to complete his brace.

Wales were 27-3 up and in dreamland. With three more points from Biggar, it became a record margin of victory over their red rose rivals as they snared a second straight title, having lost their opening match. The whistle went and the roof was metaphorically blown off as English hopes were dashed and a Welsh-heavy Lions contingent was secured. (OJ)

9. Scotland down England and break 38-year Twickenham hoodoo – 2021

Scotland’s recent dominance of the Calcutta Cup fixture has moved away from the scrappy arm-wrestles which typified their rare successes in the early part of the millennium. Elan, ingenuity and dynamism have propelled them rather than sheer bloody-mindedness.

That wasn’t the case in 2021. Not that anybody of a Scottish persuasion cared. Back then, Scots would have taken a 3-0 victory with 100 scrums, 50 lineouts and zero line-breaks just to shatter that damned Twickenham hoodoo which threatened to stretch into a fifth decade (since the icons who became Grand Slam champions the following season won in 1983.)

The place lay empty in 2021 as Covid restrictions continued to mandate crowd-less sport. The game was a pig in aesthetic terms, broody and niggly and devoid of any great fluency. Duhan van der Merwe scored the first of his seven tries (to date) against the English, blasting home by the left corner flag. The blonde destroyer’s majestic Twickenham double two years later burns far brighter in the memory, as does his hat-trick in Edinburgh last season.

But what was a more perfunctory finish proved seminal in Scottish terms. Cam Redpath, once an England U20 squad member, made a fine debut outside Finn Russell. Hamish Watson laid waste to the English breakdown on his way to becoming a British and Irish Lion.

On the final play, Watson ripped possession from a breakdown and shinned it into the stands. With no crowd noise to drown them out, the howls of Scottish delight were all the more palpable. Captain Stuart Hogg handed the Calcutta Cup to Redpath and Dave Cherry to raise into the London sky, a lifelong memory for the new caps, and an enduring image of unprecedented Scottish supremacy in the oldest fixture of them all. (JL)

8. French tears as Les Bleus win first Grand Slam in 12 years – 2022

The first decade of the Six Nations maintained the pattern of the previous two in the old Five Nations – regular flowerings of French success, with five more titles in the first 11 years of the expanded competition, including three Grand Slams – 2002, 2004 and 2010.

Then…rien. From formidable to faible, France finished in the bottom half of the table in seven out of nine years from 2011 to 2019, including an ignominious wooden spoon in 2013.

But an exciting new generation – Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Damian Penaud, Grégory Alldritt et al – brought back the joie de vivre while Fabien Galthié and defence guru Shaun Edwards instilled greater structure and resolve.

There were two runners-up finishes in 2020 and 2021 before a first title in 12 years – burnished by an epic 30-24 win over Ireland and a 36-17 thumping of Scotland at Murrayfield – was crowned by a 25-13 Grand Slam victory over England.

Fittingly, Dupont scored the final try on the hour as they sealed the deal in some comfort. La Marseillaise bellowed round the Stade de France as Alldritt launched the ball into the stands to kick-start an outpouring of relief and tears of joy as Les Bleus finally banished their Six Nations blues. (BP)

7. England not for budging – Johnno courts red carpet controversy in Dublin – 2003

For the first – and still the only – time in the Six Nations era (and only the sixth in the entire championship’s history), the final match brought two undefeated sides together, both chasing the same prize.

Having seen three previous Grand Slams slip away during Clive Woodward’s tenure in 1999 (beaten by Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2001 (Ireland), the glowering England captain Martin Johnson was not for budging with another Slam on the line in Dublin – not even for the Irish president.

Johnson’s refusal to move from the pre-match space Ireland usually occupied when the sides were introduced to Mary McAleese before kick-off meant she had to walk across the grass rather than the red carpet to reach the Irish team.

Johnson later claimed that he would have moved had the referee asked, but that the request had come from someone who looked like he might be the Lansdowne Road groundsman’s assistant.

England, similarly unmoveable, went on to smash Ireland 42-6 in the Slam showdown in one of the great performances under Woodward and of the entire Six Nations era. (NS)

6. Ireland lift their first Grand Slam since 1948 in Cardiff – 2009

What Warren Gatland sparked and Eddie O’Sullivan built upon, Declan Kidney brought to new heights at the Millennium Stadium in his first campaign as Ireland head coach. For that added layer of drama, Gatland was coaching the Welsh and had led them to the Slam the year before.

Wales had an outside chance of pipping Ireland to the title. A 13-point home win would have been enough to crash the Irish party, a plausible scenario at half-time with Wales leading 6-0, until Brian O’Driscoll and Tommy Bowe tries put Ireland back on the Grand Slam track in front of a watching Jack Kyle, captain of the fabled 1948 squad – the last men in green to win a Slam.

But two more Stephen Jones penalties brought Wales to within two points to tee up a grandstand finish. With six minutes to play, Mike Phillips surged past Irish defenders on a huge break that took him to within six metres of the Irish line. Wales may well have got over for a try but made a quick decision, Jones stepping back and skittling a drop-goal over.

Trailing by a point, from an attacking lineout inside the Welsh 22, Ireland had seven pick-and-goes to work themselves to the centre of the pitch. Looking back now, rarely was a drop-goal more telegraphed. O’Gara dropped into the pocket and Stringer hung at the final ruck for eight seconds.

Wales knew what was coming. Jones and Luke Charteris sprinted out and made despairing dives but O’Gara’s kicked cleared them, sailing through the posts as O’Gara sprinted off, one arm raised. Jones had one last chance to deny Ireland with a last-minute penalty from just inside the Irish half, but his kick fell agonisingly short. The rest, as they say, is history. (PM)

Tomorrow we will reveal numbers five to one, our most memorable Six Nations moments.