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The 20 most incredible facts from Six Nations 2016
Huw Richards
March 20, 2016
© Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images

The championship is in the books, England are Grand Slam winners, Italy take the wooden spoon -- but what else do the numbers tell us about this year's Six Nations? Huw Richards takes a look.

0 -- starts by Ireland hooker Sean Cronin in 25 Six Nations appearances. One of the truly remarkable careers, since Cronin has overtaken his compatriot Ronan O'Gara as the most used replacement in tournament history. Next longest all-bench career is Cronin's team-mate Ian Madigan, who did not get to play on Saturday against Scotland, so remains on 12 championship appearances.

1 -- drop-goal during the 2016 championship, the lowest since the Five Nations of 1990, when there were only 10 matches compared to the current 15. And it was the first score of the tournament, landed by Italy's Carlo Canna in the seventh minute of their opener against the French.

2 -- tries in his first 62 minutes of championship rugby by Ross Moriarty, one more than his father (Paul) and uncle (Richard) managed between them in 22 appearances during the 1980s.

4 -- English Grand Slams won in Paris, the most won by any team in an away city, and on three different grounds. The 1914 Slam was won at the Parc des Princes and those of 1921 and 1923 at the Stade Colombes, before Saturday's success at the Stade de France.

5 -- consecutive bottom-half finishes for the French, their worst run since the 1920s.

© Michael Steele/Getty Images

9 -- tries by Ireland's Jamie Heaslip, making him the highest-scoring active forward in the tournament and only one behind all-time leader Lawrence Dallaglio. Heaslip's two scores against Italy brought him level in second place with Imanol Harinordoquy of France.

10 -- wooden spoons for Italy in 17 seasons since joining the championship, overtaking France's 9 in 91 and placing them equal with Wales, who have taken 121 seasons to accumulate their 10.

12 -- tries by George North, more than any other active player, and all before his 24th birthday. If he can stay fit and in form, he should finish well up the all-time list but it should be noted that Ian Smith, who held the record for more than 80 years before he was displaced by Brian O'Driscoll, had scored 17 by his 24th birthday. More recently Ben Cohen also scored 12 tries before he was 24, but added only four more after.

12-- wins by Italy in their first 17 seasons, exactly the same as achieved by France in the same number of campaigns between their full admission to the championship in 1910 and expulsion in 1931. France of course played a game fewer each year, so their success percentage was 19.4% compared to Italy's 14.88%. Since readmission in 1947, France's record is comfortably the best of the competing nations.

13 -- Grand Slams won by teams who were playing France in the last match. Five by England - their Parisian quartet plus the home victory in 1991 -- and no fewer than seven of Wales' 11 Slams. That's in part due to the fact that Wales v France was often in the final round before fixtures were rotated in the 1970s, but the Slams of 2008 and 2012 also finished with victory over the French. The list is completed by Scotland's cherished 1984 triumph, after a 59-year wait to emulate the feat first achieved on the day when Murrayfield made its international debut.

© Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

17 -- years since Scotland last finished in the top half of the table, which also happens to be the exact period of time since the Five Nations became Six. Suggests that they may have regretted letting the Italians in since the moment in 2000 when they went to Rome as reigning champions and lost to the tournament debutants.

27 -- English championships, breaking the all-time tie with Wales (26). England also have 10 shared titles from the time before points difference was introduced as a tie-breaker in 1994, but only two would have been outright titles under current rules, while Wales had a superior points-difference in nine of their 11 shared titles. Had previous rules continued to apply, Wales' titles in 1994 and 2013 would have been shared, as would England's wins in 1996 and 2001, but four of England's runners-up spots -- including a hat-trick in 2013, 2014 and 2015 -- would have become shared titles. None of which is intended to prove anything, other than to underline that it has been an incredibly tight head-to-head rivalry over more than 130 years.

28 -- points won by France from 28 matches against opponents other than Italy in the seven seasons since 2010. They're really going to have to go some in the last three seasons of this decade to get anywhere near their remarkably consistent record of the five previous ten-year periods in which they never won fewer than 49 points (1970s) or more than 56 (1980s).

39 -- years since Wales last finished second. A run reflecting that over that time, Wales have generally not been very good (26 lower half finishes, including four wooden spoons) but excellent at winning big games in their rare years as contenders (eight championships), and rather questioning all those theories that they don't play well as favourites. England, by contrast, have been runners-up 12 times over the same period.

52 -- defeats suffered by Martin Castrogiovanni in championship matches, comfortably the most ever, well ahead of Sergio Parisse (45) and Ross Ford (39) and proof that most-defeated records are the preserve of players who have the quality and durability to go on getting themselves selected for perennially unsuccessful teams. A lesson reinforced by... .

55 -- starts made by Parisse, breaking his tie for the all-time championship record for forwards with John Hayes (54), who in turn took the record from Willie John McBride (53). Reports in the French press say that he's about to sign on for four more years with Stade Francais, suggesting that Brian O'Driscoll's all-time record for appearances (65, all as a starter) could be in the sights of the modern game's finest practitioner of greatness in adversity.

Sergio Parisse
Sergio Parisse© Michael Steele/Getty Images

224 -- points conceded by Italy, second only to the all-time record of 228 they shipped in their 2000 debut season. And their points difference of minus-145 was their worst ever.

288 -- points in championship matches by Jonny Sexton, the most by any current player. His 15 points against Scotland took him past Leigh Halfpenny (277) and into a tie for sixth place all-time with Gavin Hastings. But he and Halfpenny both have a way to go to crack the top five, with Chris Paterson (403) next up at the back of a leading group headed by O'Gara (567).

690 -- points scored since Canna's drop-goal (and counting). This appears to be an all-time record.

1193 -- minutes and counting since Canna's drop goal. This, remarkably enough, is not a record, although you have to go back more than a century to find a longer drop-less spell. There were 22 matches played without a drop between Bert Winfield landing a four-pointer for Wales against England in 1904 -- it was recorded as a Goal from Mark, but the award of four points indicates that it was a drop -- and Billy Bush's drop for Wales against Ireland in 1907.

© Huw Richards

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