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The six nations is a rugby tournament held anually between the major six rugby playing nations in Europe: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Each team plays every other team once with home field advantage alternating from one year to the next. Matches are played in some of the largest stadiums in the world and generally roared on by a vociferous crowd.If one team manages to defeat all of the other teams in the tournament, they are said to have completed “The Grand Slam.” A Grand Slam has only been won back to back five times, most recently by France in 1997 and 1998, and the record for the overall number of Grand Slams won is held by England with 12.If any of the Home Nations (i.e England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales) manage to beat all of the other home nations, they are said to have won the Triple Crown which has been won on four occasions twice by Wales (1976-1979) and England (1995-1998). In fact it is England who hold the record for the number of Triple Crowns won with 23 individual titles. Wales are close behind with 20 Triple Crowns to their name.One of the things that makes the Six Nations tournament so unique are the number of smaller compeitions which take place under the umbrella of the main competition.The oldest of these has been around since 1879 and is known as The Calcutta Cup which is contested each year between England and Scotland. More recently, additional trohpies are played for each time the six nations is played. The Millennium Trophy is awarded to the victor of the England/Ireland game and in 2007 France and Italy started contesting the Giuseppe Garibladi Trophy named after the man who helped to unify Italy.The victor of each match is awarded two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. There are no bonus points awarded for the number of tries that a team manages to score. Before 1994, any teams that finished on the same number of points shared the championship. However, since that time the idea of ‘points difference’ has been introduced. If the points difference is the same between two teams at the top of the table, then the championship is given to the team who has scored the most tries. Only if that number is equal too is the Championsip declared a tie.At the time of writing, a tie has never been reached.Six Nations rugby tickets are notoriously hard to come by with allocations selling out incredibly quickly despite the size of some of the stadiums. It’s testiment to the history of the competition and the passion that it generates that tickets are snapped up almost as soon as they’re available.If you’re lucky enough to be able to get yourself a ticket though, I’d thoroughly recommend going to a Six Nations match as the experience is second to none.At the time of writing, the current holders of the Six Nations Championship are Ireland who managed to complete the Grand Slam in 2009.