Six Nations title permutations: What Ireland, England, France and Scotland need to win the championship
Ireland’s grand slam hopes are over but the Six Nations title remains up for grabs this weekend
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Your support makes all the difference.Ireland could secure successive Six Nations crowns with a positive result of any kind against Scotland on the final weekend of this year’s championship.
Andy Farrell’s side had the chance to lock up another title with a win at Twickenham in round four but were stunned by England, ensuring that the destination of the crown remains in doubt ahead of “Super Saturday”.
Wales and Italy kick things off on the final day of men’s tournament action for 2024 with both sides out of the title chase, before attention turns to the Aviva Stadium for Ireland vs Scotland.
France, who still have the faintest of chances of topping the table themselves, and England conclude affairs with a clash in Lyon.
A win, draw or two losing bonus points would be enough for Ireland to secure the title, with the maximum tally that England can reach being 17 competition points if Steve Borthwick’s side win and score four tries against France.
Indeed, such is the strength of their points difference that Ireland could well retain the championship with even a single point against Scotland.
England will be hoping to take five match points and be aided by a significant slip-up from Ireland at home.
Scotland, meanwhile, will have to beat Ireland by a massive margin to overturn their 76-point difference disadvantage and hope that France beat England without either a bonus point or their own sizeable scoreline.
The French are also mathematically in the mix — sort of. Fabien Galthie’s men need Scotland to win against Ireland significantly enough that Ireland’s points difference drops down, and then achieve a bonus point win with a margin greater than Scotland’s in Dublin.
Wales will end up with the wooden spoon unless they beat Italy in Cardiff and deny their opponents a bonus point.
The Six Nations adopted bonus points in 2017 with an added rule that a team achieving a grand slam would receive an extra three points. This was to prevent a scenario where a four-win team that had achieved a bonus point in every game pipped a team that had managed a clean sweep but not taken maximum points in each match.
Played | Wins | Losses | Draws | Points | Points difference | Remaining fixtures | |
1. Ireland | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16 | +80 | SCO (h) |
2. England | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | -3 | FRA (a) |
3. Scotland | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | +4 | IRE (a) |
4. France | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | +4 | ENG (h) |
5. Italy | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | -37 | WAL (a) |
6. Wales | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | -48 | ITA (h) |
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