# 1971 Five Nations Championship

The 1971 Five Nations Championship was the forty-second series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the seventy-seventh series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. This was the last Five Nations tournament where a try was worth 3 points. Ten matches were played between 16 January and 27 March. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Wales won all their four matches to win the championship for the seventeenth time outright, excluding shared titles. They won the Triple Crown for the second time in three seasons and the twelfth time overall, and completed the Grand Slam for the first time since 1952 and the sixth time overall.

## Participants

The teams involved were:
| Nation | Venue | City | Head coach | Captain |
| England | Twickenham | London | Don White | Tony Bucknall/John Spencer |
| France | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir | Colombes | Fernand Cazenave | Benoît Dauga/Christian Carrère |
| Ireland | Lansdowne Road | Dublin | Ronnie Dawson | Tom Kiernan/Mike Gibson |
| Scotland | Murrayfield | Edinburgh | Bill Dickinson | Peter Brown |
| Wales | National Stadium | Cardiff | Clive Rowlands | John Dawes |

## Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
| 1 | Wales | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 38 | +35 | 8 |
| 2 | France | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 41 | 40 | +1 | 4 |
| 3 | Ireland | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 41 | 46 | −5 | 3 |
| 3 | England | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 44 | 58 | −14 | 3 |
| 5 | Scotland | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 47 | 64 | −17 | 2 |

## Results

* 1971-01-16
| France | 13–8 | Scotland |
| Tries: Sillières Villepreux Con: Villepreux (2) Pen: Villepreux | | Tries: Steele Con: Brown Pen: Smith |
* Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Colombes Attendance: 32,466 Referee: K. D. Kelleher (Ireland)
* 1971-01-16
| Wales | 22–6 | England |
| Tries: Bevan Davies (2) Con: Taylor (2) Pen: Williams Drop: John (2) | | Tries: Hannaford Pen: Rossborough |
* National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: D. P. d'Arcy (Ireland)
* 1971-01-30
| Ireland | 9–9 | France |
| Tries: Grant Pen: O'Driscoll (2) | | Pen: Villepreux (2) Drop: Bérot |
* Lansdowne Road, Dublin Attendance: 55,000 Referee: G. C. Lamb (England)
* 1971-02-06
| Scotland | 18–19 | Wales |
| Tries: Carmichael Rea Pen: Brown (4) | | Tries: Taylor Edwards John Davies Con: John Taylor Pen: John |
* Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: M. H. Titcomb (England)
* 1971-02-13
| Ireland | 6–9 | England |
| Tries: Grant Duggan | | Pen: Hiller (3) |
* Lansdowne Road, Dublin Referee: M. Joseph (Wales)
* 1971-02-27
| Scotland | 5–17 | Ireland |
| Tries: Frame Con: Brown | | Tries: Duggan (2) Grant Con: Gibson Pen: Gibson (2) |
* Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: W. K. M. Jones (Wales)
* 1971-02-27
| England | 14–14 | France |
| Tries: Hiller Con: Hiller Pen: Hiller (3) | | Tries: Bertranne Cantoni Con: Villepreux Pen: Villepreux Drop: Bérot |
* Twickenham, London Attendance: 70,000 Referee: A. R. Lewis (Wales)
* 1971-03-13
| Wales | 23–9 | Ireland |
| Tries: Davies (2) Edwards (2) Con: John Pen: John (2) Drop: John | | Pen: Gibson (3) |
* National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: R. F. Johnson (England)
* 1971-03-20
| England | 15–16 | Scotland |
| Tries: Hiller Neary Pen: Hiller (3) | | Tries: Brown Paterson Rea Con: Brown (2) Drop: Paterson |
* Twickenham, London Referee: C. Durand (France)
* 1971-03-27
| France | 5–9 | Wales |
| Tries: Dauga Con: Villepreux | | Tries: Edwards John Pen.: John |
* Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Colombes Attendance: 50,703 Referee: J. Young (Scotland)