Before 1950, France were hopelessly bottom with only 18 wins from 86 games. Since 1950, and particularly since 1960, they have been consistently the dominant force in the championship. France have been much more consistent. France won a minimum of 22 matches in each decade since 1960, a mark only otherwise reached by those two great teams - who were also the only teams to win more matches than they lost to France over a decade. This might not seem very much, but is actually a massive gap when one considers than eight points is the maximum any team could win per season.
Some decades are more equally contested than others.
The 1990s were unequal. If England had won or drawn against England their 1990s performance would have been most dominant Five Nations decade of the lot. Ireland, who won more championship points in Cardiff than Dublin during the 1990s, had the worst full-decade record since France in the 1920s. David Humphreys last minute miss against France on the opening day of the 1999 season also ensured that Ireland would become the first team ever to lose all 10 meetings with an opponent during a decade. It is a measure of Ireland s weakness in the 1990s that only the 6-6 draw at Lansdowne Road saved them from similar ignominy against the Scots.