When was the last scoreless draw in the Five/Six Nations? Graham Stevens, England

Draws remain relatively uncommon in Test matches, with only five in the 240 Six Nations matches since Italy joined the Championship in 2000. None of these was a completely null result.

You have to go back to the winter of 1963 to find the last scoreless draw in the Five Nations. Ireland and England went eighty minutes without registering a score at Lansdowne Road on Feb.9 1963.

Snow and frost had gripped Britain and Ireland for weeks and the Lansdowne Road pitch had been protected by straw until the eve of the game. Heavy rain then came in off the Irish Sea on the morning of the game and persisted throughout the day. As a result, the match was played on a quagmire, which suited the heavy Irish pack.

England were judged lucky to escape with the draw, Ireland missing four kickable penalties - three from the England 25-yards-line (in the old pre-metric days). John Willcox, the England full-back, caught and handled the greasy ball superbly and his heroic defence was a major factor in holding out for a draw.

The stats from that match make interesting reading today. The Daily Telegraph reported that there were 107 line-outs, 51 scrums, 25 penalties awarded and eight marks made - a total of 191 stoppages in the game. According to the same source, the ball was only in play for 30 of the allotted 80 minutes!

England had also been involved in a scoreless draw with Wales at Twickenham the season before.

There were two other pointless stalemates involving Tier One nations in the early sixties. France and South Africa drew 0-0 in Paris in February 1961 and Scotland held the Fifth All Blacks to a scoreless tie at Murrayfield in January 1964 - the last Test involving Tier One nations to end that way.