List of Six Nations Championship hat-tricks
![Charles Wade, former England Rugby Union player](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Wade_Charles.gif)
A hat-trick in rugby union, the scoring of three tries or three drop goals in a single match, has been achieved 55 times in the history of the Six Nations Championship. The annual competition, established in 1882, was originally known as the Home Nations Championship and contested between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was expanded to the Five Nations when France joined in 1910,[A] and then to the Six Nations with the addition of Italy in 2000.[2]
The first player to achieve the feat was Charles Wade, who was an Australian student at Oxford University when he was called up as a travelling reserve for England's match against Wales. When Philip Newton got lost on his way to the match, Wade was instated in his place.[3] He scored three tries in England's 2–0 victory, which was the first match of the championship.[4] At that time, a try by itself was not worth any points but allowed the team to try and kick a goal.[5] George Lindsay scored five tries in Scotland's 4–0 win over Wales in 1887, the most tries scored by a single player in a Championship match.[6]
Besides Lindsay, six players have scored more than three tries in a Championship match; of these Ian Smith is the only player to achieve the feat twice. He scored four tries in successive matches during the 1925 Five Nations Championship.[7] Wales' Jehoida Hodges normally played as a forward, but after an injury to winger Tom Pearson during a match against England, Hodges was moved to the wing. Despite playing out of position, he scored a hat-trick in a 21–5 victory for Wales.[8] As of 2017, the only forwards to score a Championship hat-trick while actually playing in the forwards are Michel Crauste; he scored three tries for France in their 13–0 victory over England in 1962 and CJ Stander; he scored three tries for Ireland in a 63–10 win over Italy in 2017.[9][10]
Four players have scored a hat-trick of drop goals: Pierre Albaladejo, Jean-Patrick Lescarboura, Diego Dominguez and Neil Jenkins.[11] No Italian has scored a hat-trick of tries in the competition, with Dominguez's hat-trick of drop goals the only one by an Italian player. English players have scored the most hat-tricks with 18, while France, Ireland and Scotland have conceded the most, with 12 each. Three players have scored a hat-trick and been on the losing side; Robert Montgomery in Ireland's 0–1 loss to Wales in 1887,[12] Howard Marshall in England's 11–12 defeat to Wales in 1893,[13] and Émile Ntamack in France's 33–34 loss to Wales in 1999.[14] Lescarboura's hat-trick against England in 1985 and Jenkins' against Scotland in 2001, are the only times the feat has been achieved with the match ending in a draw.[15][16] The most recent hat-trick was achieved by Blair Kinghorn (Scotland) against Italy on 18 March 2023.[17]
Hat-tricks
[edit]![Reggie Gibbs](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Reggie_Gibbs.jpg/220px-Reggie_Gibbs.jpg)
![Former Irish rugby union player, Brain O'Driscoll](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Brian_O%27Driscoll_2.jpg/220px-Brian_O%27Driscoll_2.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Chris_Ashton_2011.jpg/220px-Chris_Ashton_2011.jpg)
- All statistics are correct as of 6 February 2022.
Key | |
---|---|
4 | Player scored four tries |
5 | Player scored five tries |
Tries
[edit]Multiple hat-tricks
[edit]Player | No. | Years |
---|---|---|
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3 | 1924, 1925 |
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2 | 1907, 1910 |
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2 | 1910, 1911 |
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2 | 1913 |
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2 | 1914 |
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2 | 2000, 2002 |
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2 | 2016, 2017 |
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2 | 2019, 2023 |
Drop goals
[edit]No. | Player | For | Against | Result | Venue | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Pierre Albaladejo | ![]() |
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23–6 | Stade Olympique de Colombes | 9 April 1960 |
2 | Jean-Patrick Lescarboura | ![]() |
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9–9 | Twickenham, London | 2 February 1985 |
3 | Diego Domínguez | ![]() |
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34–20 | Stadio Flaminio, Rome | 5 February 2000 |
4 | Neil Jenkins | ![]() |
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28–28 | Murrayfield, Edinburgh | 17 February 2001 |
Player hat-tricks by their national team
[edit]Team | Tries for | Tries against | Drop goals for | Drop goals against | Total for | Total against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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18 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 5 |
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12 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 11 |
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10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 8 |
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9 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 11 |
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7 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 12 |
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0 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 |
See also
[edit]- List of Rugby World Cup hat-tricks
- List of Six Nations Championship Player of the Championship winners
- List of Six Nations Championship records
Footnotes
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Smith, David; Williams, Gareth (1980). Fields of Praise: The Official History of The Welsh Rugby Union. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0766-3.
References
[edit]General
- "Six Nations – Most tries scored". ESPN. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
- "Six Nations – Most drop goals". ESPN. Archived from the original on 20 May 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
Specific
- ^ Richards, Huw (24 February 2010). "Wooller inspires British Army triumph". ESPN. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ^ "Six Nations history". BBC Sport. 28 January 2002. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
- ^ Richards, Huw (22 January 2013). "England's early great three-quarter". ESPN. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
- ^ "Wales 0G – 2G England (FT)". ESPN. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
- ^ "Why a try?". England Rugby. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ^ "Five/Six Nations Records". Belfast Telegraph. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ^ Reed, Alasdair (1 March 2011). "Ian Smith's record safe as Scotland try hard but fail to cross line at Murrayfield". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ^ Smith & Williams 1980, p. 143.
- ^ Griffiths, John (8 February 2004). "The International Championship 1883 to 2003". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
- ^ "VIDEO: Stander and Gilroy make history with hat-tricks". rbs6nations.com. 11 February 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- ^ "Six nations facts and figures". BBC Sport. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ^ "Ireland 0G–1G Wales". ESPN. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ "Elements leave their mark in Cardiff". ESPN. 13 February 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ Glover, Tim (8 March 1999). "The day Wales painted Paris red". The Independent. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ^ Proome, Jeremy (31 January 2014). "The day Andrew rescued England". SA Rugby Magazine. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ^ "Late Scottish surge frustrates Wales". BBC News. 17 February 2001. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ English, Tom (18 March 2023). "Six Nations 2023: Scotland 26-14 Italy — Gregor Townsend's side survive late onslaught". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 March 2023.