Which Six Nations year has been your favourite? Could this year be the best yet?

The competition is in its 14th year, which has been the best championship so far in your opinion?

With all the teams having very good cases for and against their prospect this year, do you think it could be the best, closest, most hard fought yet?

For me its 2005 and the simple reason is that I was brought up on Wales through the 70s and then when old enough to go to games had to endure the late 80s and 90s so to be at the top of the tree finally was great.

2005 was great as it was so unexpected and we played good rugby.

Has to be 2009 for me. First time I've seen my country win something. 

Before that maybe 2007. Ireland played some great rugby, lost to France (as usual   ) then lost the championship on points difference. Irish rugby was on a big high just before the disastrous world cup.

I really enjoyed last year, Scotland and Italy improved the tournament was close, games were not won easily.

2009.  Not especially because of the 6N or that we won the Slam, but moreso because of the towering vintage year of past-his-sell-by-date (yes even then he was judged past it!) O'Driscoll that went with it - except of course for the lack of recognition at the end of that same year........... 

I wonder if anyone's not going to name a year where their team won the championship. Makes this thread somewhat predictable   

Every year after 2003.

Knowsit17 wrote:I wonder if anyone's not going to name a year where their team won the championship. Makes this thread somewhat predictable   

For the Welsh, that's so few years left to choose from...................... Otherwise, ask the Scots and the Italians.

Of course the word 'favourite' is always loaded with happy personal memories and selfish thoughts.
What exactly are you expecting here, Knowit? Robotic aloofness from rugby fans? An England fan saying last year was his favourite because he was awestruck by the power and blood-thirsty viciousness of the rampant Welsh and was only too proud that his was the team chosen for such a heroic shellacking?
What's your favourite year?

Not sure, so many to choose from

2003 last time England won a Slam.
2005 3rd last time Wales won a Slam
2008 2nd last time Wales won a Slam
2012 last time Wales won a Slam
2013 Wales defend Championship and dismantle England's chariot

6N is a great proving ground in the run-up to RWCs. 6N is harder, ceteris paribus, for england to win than anyone else because every single nation's biggest game is against us. and for that i am grateful, as that is i believe a big reason why england are generally resilient in RWCs.

favourite year? undoubtedly this year. because there are 4 nations with a really genuine chance of winning (eng, ire, wal, fra, sorry sco/ita).

is definitely my most anticipated competition, from a competitiveness perspective, ever.

But quoins we always says this come January, it's wide open anyone can win it, England will get a slam, France are scary and always win post lions, Ireland COULD win - we aren't sure why - and Wales are slow starters, big headed and have no strength in depth etc etc.

But what do we learn each year

Prospect of English Slam - based on history very slim
France are scary and won a spoon last year, are very untested and have had a horrible bum last year….winners? really?
Ireland COULD win, not sure why
Wales have no strength in depth and are slow starters but they DO win.

My point, finally, is that what we know each year in January has been un learned over the course of the following 2 months but we never seem to register the lessons

SecretFly wrote:

Knowsit17 wrote:I wonder if anyone's not going to name a year where their team won the championship. Makes this thread somewhat predictable   

For the Welsh, that's so few years left to choose from......................   Otherwise, ask the Scots and the Italians.

Of course the word 'favourite' is always loaded with happy personal memories and selfish thoughts.
What exactly are you expecting here, Knowit?  Robotic aloofness from rugby fans? An England fan saying last year was his favourite because he was awestruck by the power and blood-thirsty viciousness of the rampant Welsh and was only too proud that his was the team chosen for such a heroic shellacking?
What's your favourite year?

Just felt like being pedantic once I realised there wouldn't be many England fans who wouldn't say 2003 and not a single Irishman I can think of who wouldn't say 2009... Of course the question makes much more sense to Wales fans who would naturally take longer to answer due to an abundance of successes to choose from   

I'm tempted to say 2008. A perfect fairytale transition from RWC group dropouts the previous year to Grand Slam champs in a space of months. I can still feel the mingled shock and euphoria when I think back on it.

Year wise as I have said for me was 05 but for a single game point of view it was Twickenham 08.

Again through the dark days of late 80s and 90s I travelled thre with friends knowing it was pretty much always going to be a long long longggggggggg weekend so for the shoe to finally be on the other foot and see them suffer was pretty damn good.

Even now thoough, those memories of the 80s/90s still haunt me and I never really travel to Twickenham with anythong other than trepidation of what's to come.

My favourite Six Nations memory is probably Ireland beating England at Twickenham in 2004, closely followed by beating England again at Croke Park in 2007. But the only campaign in the last 10 years I didn't get my heart broken at was 2009.

I think 2007 was far and away the best year in terms of quality.

I quite enjoyed the 2011 campaign, bar the last game. Great wins in Cardiff and the thrashing of Italy, brought some great hope that potentially, the Eng team at the time could go far. Still.....

This year I hope will be the best, as Quins said, 4 Nations have genuine title claims.
I hope the new scrum laws will benefit the 6Ns & reffing decisions as last year was a lottery & bore fest in some games.

Great point about the new scrum laws. Hopefully everyone gets it right. However, anyone who sat in the stands at the Munster-Edinburgh match a week ago can tell you that there is a long way to go there.

Last year was pretty good from a Welsh point of view for various reasons.

1. We lost a very close and disappointing series against Australia in the summer
2. We had been destroyed in the Autumn Internationals
3. We got hammered by Ireland in the first half

But then we had a resurgence in the second half against Ireland, won away at France, Italy and Scotland, and with our backs truly against the wall for a championship decider, which we needed a huge 16 points difference against England who were looking for the slam, we put on probably the best Welsh performance of the decade.

This year will be better from a neutral perspective, Ireland, England and Wales are playing well at the moment, who knows what France are going to do, and Italy and Scotland are improving.

My favourite six nations was 2005 easily, but my favourite tournament EVER was in 1994 when Wales won the championship but lost to England on the final weekend at Twickenham. I will never forget Nigel Walker burning up the turf in the old Arms Park against France, Neil Jenkins winning out in Ireland all on his own, Mike Rayers sliding try with his victory fingers up to the camera as he slid through the mud and rain, I was just turning eighteen then and the world was my oyster, I went to Dublin, and was at the France and Scotland game, I watched the England game in the Orange Tree in Richmond, it was my first proper grown up five nations where I went with my mates and a lot of older men who knew what rugby trips were about, and back then there was still a possibility that you would bump into a couple of the players in the city centre afterwards, god I feel old now.  

Im not too excited by this year.
Its been rare in the last few you couldnt make a strong case for 4 possible winners, this years competitiveness is nothing new.
What is disappointing is that scotland arent even pretending to be dark horses, and the french team is a mess.
We also have the post lions hangover to contend with. And the Welsh could well be affected by the domestic wrangling

None of the sides seem on the top of a surge of form or the brink of a revolution, they are all just pottering along.

It doenst excite me that much this year, although that doenst mean I dont expect it to be tight fought and full of drama, just that it is every year.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Im not too excited by this year.
Its been rare in the last few you couldnt make a strong case for 4 possible winners, this years competitiveness is nothing new.
What is disappointing is that scotland arent even pretending to be dark horses, and the french team is a mess.
We also have the post lions hangover to contend with. And the Welsh could well be affected by the domestic wrangling

None of the sides seem on the top of a surge of form or the brink of a revolution, they are all just pottering along.

It doenst excite me that much this year, although that doenst mean I dont expect it to be tight fought and full of drama, just that it is every year.

I don't think France are in that much of a mess. Tales getting injured is a big loss though.