10 things you need to know about the 2025 Six Nations
Today at 01:16 PM
1. Ireland hunt historic achievement
The tournament, in one guise or another, was first played in 1883. England and Wales share the most titles with 39 titles each. Ireland has won the last two titles and are going for a third in 2025. If they do top of the table they were will become their first nation ever to have completed a hat-trick of outright wins in consecutive years.
2. Scotland’s glass ceiling
Scotland's last success in the Championship came in 1999, the last year of the old Five Nations tournament before Italy joined in 2000. They have never won the Six Nations, third place (on five occasions) being their best showing to date.
If Scotland’s recent record of 10 consecutive defeats against Ireland is the source of trepidation ahead of those teams’ round two meeting at Murrayfield, then the fact that Townsend’s boys will be chasing an unprecedented fifth win on the bounce against England when they visit Twickenham in round three will be a major confidence boost. A victory there would make it a remarkable six Scottish wins and one draw from the last eight meeting between these two most ancient of rivals.
Join The Offside Line's Six Nations Fantasy League
6N preview: expect curveballs with pride, Lions' places and gainful employment all on the line
6N Countdown: TOL's Team-By-Team Guide Part 3 – Scotland … according to 'the club stalwart'
3. Law variations
This year the Six Nations will be trialling the 20 minute red card for technical offences where a team is allowed to replace the miscreant after playing a quarter of the match short-handed. Referees can still issue permanent red card for foul play deemed “deliberate and dangerous”. Wales lock Geoff Wheel and Irish breakaway Willie Duggan were the first players in the Championship to be shown a red card for their part in a big brawl in Cardiff between their respective teams in 1977.
Other changes to the laws and/or the way the laws are applied include:
- ‘Protecting the 9' which will see the offside line for the team not in possession at scrums set at the centre line of the tunnel, while a scrum-half cannot be played while the ball is near a tackle, ruck or maul. Not everyone is a fan. “They may as well wrap the nines up in cotton wool at this stage. It’s becoming ridiculous, in my opinion,” Ireland forward Tadhg Beirne said.
- Referee explanations of important decisions being broadcast to the crowd via the stadium PA system will continue after what was deemed to be a successful trial during the Autumn.
- Time limits imposed so that kickers must complete their conversion 60 seconds after a try has been scored while scrums and line-outs must be formed within 30 seconds.
- ‘Touchfinder’ technology will identify precisely where the ball crosses the touchline from kicks and where line-outs should be taken from.
Referees have also been told to keep a keen eye on teams using the ball within five seconds, which will superbly – hopefully – mean an end to the awful ‘caterpillar ruck’
4. Sergio leads the way
Former Italy No 8 Sergio Parisse has made the most appearances in the Six Nations with 69 to his name. He is followed by Alun-Wyn Jones with 67 and Ronan O'Gara with 63. Stuart Hogg and Ross Ford share the Scottish record with 55 appearances each. Incidentally Parisse is the only player in the world to have suffered over 100 (104) Test defeats in all competitions … ouch!
5. Maro steps up
England have changed their skipper. Maro Itoje has been hailed as England's captain-in-waiting almost as soon as he first appeared but it has taken the big lock until the age of 30 to be handed the captain's (metaphorical) armband. He replaced hooker Jamie George who was, reportedly, not best pleased but is now injured and will miss the opening game at least. Let's see if Itoje can transform England's fortunes as they have won nothing since 2020. How will he interact with match officials? Better than Owen Farrell; that is a certainty but also a pretty low bar.
6. Injured XV
You could field a pretty handy team of players who won’t be involved this weekend: Furbank; Penaud, Fickou, Tuipulotu, Feyi-Waboso; Costelow, Casey, John, George, Furlong, Williamson, Cummings, Jelonch, Underhill, Dombrandt.
Join The Offside Line’s Six Nations Fantasy League by clicking HERE before 8.15pm on Friday
7. Italian threat
Scotland face an opening match full of jeopardy. Theoretically, a home clash against Italy, who have never finished in the top half of the table (ending up with he wooden spoon in 18 of the 25 tournaments played) should be the ideal way to ease into the tournament, but Townsend’s troops learned the hard way that the current Azzurri crop are not a force to be trifled with when a commanding 10-22 lead with 27 minutes played was relinquished in Rome resulting in a soul-destroying 31-29 defeat. Lest we forget, the reigning Six Nations player of the tournament is Tommaso Menoncello – a fierce runner who forms a wonderfully balanced midfield partnership with the ball-playing Juan Ignacio Brex.
8. Darcy versus Duhan
Fit again after an injury ravaged couple of years, Darcy Graham has some catching up to do on his big pal Duhan van der Merwe, who has pushed his nose in front as Scotland’s all-time leading try-scorer on 30 (from 44 appearances). Graham is on 29 (from 42 appearances). Both start this weekend, and will no doubts insist that their focus is purely on the team win.
9. No more ‘roof-gate’
The continual ‘will-it-be-or-won’t-it-be’ drama around whether the roof at the Principality Stadium will be open or shut for Wales’ home matches has been put out to pasture for the time being at least, with news that it will be stay closed for all Test fixtures for the next two years.
10. Enjoy it for free while you still can
This is the last year in the current cycle of broadcast partnerships for the Six Nations, and it seems increasingly likely that the tournament will disappear behind a paywall from 2026 onwards. Tom Harrison, the chief executive of Six Nations, has insisted that selling the rights to the biggest bidder even if that means it is no longer on terrestrial TV is "absolutely not a formality", but there is a growing sense that rugby’s desperate need for cash now will outweigh the long-term implications of making the sport less accessible to those who can’t or won’t pay for a subscription.
There was a curious episode earlier this week when Rugby Pass, a website owned by World Rugby, announced that TNT are set to add the Six Nations to their international rugby portfolio, but then pulled the story a short while later after TNT had poured cold water on the idea that a deal was imminent. It feels like one of those situations when there is, indeed, no smoke without fire!
At least ITV are determined to go out with a bang having hired former England coach Eddie Jones as a pundit for this campaign. We can expect some straight-talking and pot-stirring from the irascible Australian. And alas, it looks like there won’t be a chance to relive the 2025 action with a ‘behind the scenes’ perspective on the world’s biggest streaming platform ahead of next year’s tournament (as is currently happening for the 2024 campaign). Unfortunately, Netflix has no current plans to film a third season of ‘Full Contact’, meaning the series has effectively been cancelled. This is a major blow to rugby’s administrators in their drive to grow the game’s profile, as they hoped their partnership with Netflix’ would have the same sort of impact ‘Drive to Survive’ had for Formula One.
Former Scotland second-row Jim Hamilton certainly had a few choice thoughts on the topic:
The Netflix deal…. GONE.
Anyway. No more negativity from me. Problem solver not, maker. Oh… and no more goat chat. pic.twitter.com/EEm14TbRpN— Jim Hamilton (@jimhamilton4) January 28, 2025
- You can book your Six Nations hospitality and VIP tickets with Seat Unique HERE, an Official Hospitality Partner of The Murrayfield Experience
The post 10 things you need to know about the 2025 Six Nations appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.
