The Triple Crown is a title and trophy that is competed for annually by England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the sport of Rugby Union. One aspect of it, that sometimes causes confusion for newcomers to the sport, is the fact that it is competed for as part of the Six Nations competition. As we'll explore in this article, this has come about through historical changes in the composition of European rugby. We'll also see why the Triple Crown used to be known as the "invisible cup".
Those who follow rugby union, these days, will be familiar with the Six Nations competition as a yearly tournament that pitches the best six European rugby nations against one another. As well as the aforementioned four nations, France and Italy participate and each nation plays each other nation once. This means that each team plays a total of five matches and the overall winner is determined by which team has picked up the most points over the course of the season. That explains the current format and is fairly straightforward.
To understand where the Triple Crown fits in, however, we have to go back in time a bit, to 1883 to be precise. This was when the Home International Championship was set up, as an annual competition between the four countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) that comprised Britain at that point. Since then, of course, partition has happened in Ireland, with the north remaining part of the UK but the south setting up an independent Republic. Nevertheless, Ireland has continued to compete in rugby as one single nation and is still considered as a "home nation" with regards to the Triple Crown.
These four nations competed for the Home International Championship until 1910 when a decision was taken to allow France to join in. The competition became known as the Five Nations and the main trophy being competed for was the Five Nations trophy. However, the four home nations wanted something to preserve the long history that they had of competition against each other. Therefore a decision was taken that if one of the home nations succeeded in beating all the other three home nations, then they would be dubbed the Triple Crown winners. Therefore, assuming that France didn't win the Five Nations, then it was perfectly possible for one of the home nations to win both the Five Nations and be dubbed Triple Crown winners in the same year.
I used the term "dubbed" due to the fact that there wasn't an actual cup reserved for the winners of the Triple Crown until as recently as 2006. It was an achievement that the competing home nations were rightly proud of and kept track of but it didn't result in an actual trophy being received. RBS put this right in 2006 when, as sponsors of the Six Nations, they introduced a Triple Crown trophy.
Triple Crown stats:
England (with 23 wins) and Wales (with 19 wins) have dominated the Triple Crown roll of honour. Scotland (10 wins) and Ireland (9 wins) are engaged in their own battle. Ireland won the Triple Crown in 2006, making them the first nation to be able to actually lift a Triple Crown trophy. They went onto win the Triple Crown again the following year before Wales claimed the trophy in 2008 as part of their victorious Six Nations campaign. The most successful winning runs, in terms of Triple Crown retention were achieved by England (between 1995 and 1998) and by Wales (between 1976 and 1979).
Does the Triple Crown still matter?
With the introduction of Italy, to the Six Nations, in 2000, the Triple Crown now comprises just three matches out of the overall five matches that the teams play. This, plus the growing significance of the Rugby World Cup, means that the sport is a much more international game than it was back in the Nineteenth century. It could be argued, therefore, that a parochial rivalry between the four nations of the British Isles doesn't have as much significance as it did in previous decades? There may be an element of truth to that but it certainly still meant something to the Irish teams that won the trophy in 2006 and 2007.
I think it's certainly true that the main drive for the competing teams is to win the Six Nations but the Triple Crown remains a nice badge of success to be able to boast about. The fact that it is no longer the invisible cup has also helped to reinvigorate the lure of winning the Triple Crown. However, at its heart is the fierce but (in the case of rugby) friendly rivalry that exists between the various countries that make up the British Isles. England possesses by far the biggest population of these four nations but the Celtic nations love nothing better than putting one over their big neighbour. The Triple Crown looks set to have a long and glittering future to go with its glorious past.
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