# 1975 Five Nations Championship

The 1975 Five Nations Championship was the forty-sixth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the eighty-first series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 18 January and 15 March. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The championship was won by Wales, the team's eighteenth title (excluding another nine shared championships).
The game between Scotland and Wales at the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on 1 March attracted a World Record rugby attendance of 104,000 fans. This record would not be broken until a Bledisloe Cup game between Australia and New Zealand attracted 107,042 to the Sydney Olympic Stadium in 1999. The attendance at Murrayfield remains the Championship's record crowd, the record attendance in Europe and the third highest rugby attendance in history. With Scotland winning 12-10 it was the only loss for the Welsh during the 1975 Five Nations.

## Participants

| Nation | Venue | City | Head coach | Captain |
| England | Twickenham | London | John Burgess | Fran Cotton |
| France | Parc des Princes | Paris | Jean Desclaux | Jacques Fouroux/Claude Dourthe |
| Ireland | Lansdowne Road | Dublin | Roly Meates | Willie John McBride |
| Scotland | Murrayfield | Edinburgh | Bill Dickinson | Ian McLauchlan |
| Wales | National Stadium | Cardiff | John Dawes | Mervyn Davies |

## Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
| 1 | Wales | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 87 | 30 | +57 | 6 |
| 2 | Scotland | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 40 | +7 | 4 |
| 2 | Ireland | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 54 | 67 | −13 | 4 |
| 2 | France | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 53 | 79 | −26 | 4 |
| 5 | England | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 40 | 65 | −25 | 2 |

## Results

* 18 January 1975
| France | 10–25 | Wales |
| Tries: Gourdon Pen.: Taffary (2) | | Tries: Cobner Davies Edwards Fenwick Price Con.: Fenwick Pen.: Fenwick |
* Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 43,603 Referee: K. A. Pattinson (England)
* 18 January 1975
| Ireland | 12–9 | England |
| Tries: Gibson McCombe Con.: McCombe (2) | | Tries: Stevens Con.: Old Drops: Old |
* Lansdowne Road, Dublin Referee: F. Palmade (France)
* 1 February 1975
| England | 20–27 | France |
| Tries: Duckham Rossborough Pen.: Rossborough (4) | | Tries: Etchenique Gourdon Guilbert Spanghero Con.: Pariès (4) Pen.: Pariès |
* Twickenham, London Attendance: 70,000 Referee: T. F. E. Grierson (Scotland)
* 1 February 1975
| Scotland | 20–13 | Ireland |
| Tries: Renwick Steele Pen.: Irvine (2) Drops: McGeechan Morgan | | Tries: Dennison Grace Con.: McCombe Pen.: McCombe |
* Murrayfield, Edinburgh Referee: R. F. Johnson (England)
* 15 February 1975
| Wales | 20–4 | England |
| Tries: Davies Fenwick J.J. Williams Con.: Martin Pen.: Martin (2) | | Tries: Horton |
* National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: Alan Hosie (Scotland)
* 15 February 1975
| France | 10–9 | Scotland |
| Tries: Dourthe Pen.: Pariès Drops: Astre | | Pen.: Irvine (3) |
* Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 43,472 Referee: M. S. Lewis (Wales)
* 1 March 1975
| Ireland | 25–6 | France |
| Tries: Ensor Grace McBride Con.: McCombe (2) Pen.: McCombe Drops: McCombe (2) | | Pen.: Pariès Drops: Pariès |
* Lansdowne Road, Dublin Attendance: 50,000 Referee: D. M. M. Lloyd (Wales)
* 1 March 1975
| Scotland | 12–10 | Wales |
| Pen.: Morgan (3) Drops: McGeechan | | Tries: Evans Pen.: Fenwick (2) |
* Murrayfield, Edinburgh Attendance: 104,000 *Rugby Union World Record until 1999 Referee: J. R. West (Ireland)
* Source - Quinn, Encyclopaedia of World Rugby
* 15 March 1975
| Wales | 32–4 | Ireland |
| Tries: Bergiers Davies Edwards Faulkner J.J. Williams Con.: Bennett (3) Pen.: Bennett (2) | | Tries: Duggan |
* National Stadium, Cardiff Referee: J. Saint-Guillem (France)
* 15 March 1975
| England | 7–6 | Scotland |
| Tries: Morley Pen.: Bennett | | Pen.: Morgan (2) |
* Twickenham, London Referee: D. P. d'Arcy (Ireland)