2017 Six Nations Championship
The 2017 Six Nations Championship was the 18th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. The tournament was also known as the RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
| 2017 Six Nations Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 4 February – 18 March 2017 | ||
| Countries | |||
| Tournament statistics | |||
| Champions | England (28th title) | ||
| Matches played | 15 | ||
| Attendance | 996,662 (66,444 per match) | ||
| Tries scored | 66 (4.4 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) | Camille Lopez (67) | ||
| Top try scorer(s) | Eight players
| ||
| Player of the tournament | Stuart Hogg | ||
| Official website | Six Nations Website | ||
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It was contested by defending champions England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Including the competition's previous iterations as the Home Nations Championship and Five Nations Championship, it was the 123rd edition of the tournament.
For the first time the 2017 tournament used the bonus point system common to most other professional rugby union tournaments. As well as the standard four points for a win and two for a draw, a team scoring four tries in a match received an additional league table point, as did a team losing by seven or fewer points. Additionally, to ensure that a team winning all of its five matches (a Grand Slam) would also win the Championship, three bonus points were to be awarded for this achievement.
For the second successive year, the championship was won by England with a round to spare. However, they were denied the Grand Slam and Triple Crown in the final game by a defeat to Ireland in the final round, the fifth time this has happened to England in the Six Nations era (2000, 2001, 2011, 2013 and 2017) and the third time at the hands of the Irish (the other two being 2001 and 2011).