List of Six Nations Championship hat-tricks explained

A hat-trick in rugby union, the scoring of three tries or three drop goals in a single match, has been achieved 55 times in the history of the Six Nations Championship. The annual competition, established in 1882, was originally known as the Home Nations Championship and contested between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was expanded to the Five Nations when France joined in 1910, and then to the Six Nations with the addition of Italy in 2000.^[1]

The first player to achieve the feat was Charles Wade, who was an Australian student at Oxford University when he was called up as a travelling reserve for England's match against Wales. When Philip Newton got lost on his way to the match, Wade was instated in his place.^[2] He scored three tries in England's 2–0 victory, which was the first match of the championship.^[3] At that time, a try by itself was not worth any points but allowed the team to try and kick a goal.^[4] George Lindsay scored five tries in Scotland's 4–0 win over Wales in 1887, the most tries scored by a single player in a Championship match.^[5]

Besides Lindsay, six players have scored more than three tries in a Championship match; of these Ian Smith is the only player to achieve the feat twice. He scored four tries in successive matches during the 1925 Five Nations Championship.^[6] Wales' Jehoida Hodges normally played as a forward, but after an injury to winger Tom Pearson during a match against England, Hodges was moved to the wing. Despite playing out of position, he scored a hat-trick in a 21–5 victory for Wales. As of 2017, the only forwards to score a Championship hat-trick while actually playing in the forwards are Michel Crauste; he scored three tries for France in their 13–0 victory over England in 1962 and CJ Stander; he scored three tries for Ireland in a 63–10 win over Italy in 2017.^{[7] [8]}

Four players have scored a hat-trick of drop goals: Pierre Albaladejo, Jean-Patrick Lescarboura, Diego Dominguez and Neil Jenkins.^[9] No Italian has scored a hat-trick of tries in the competition, with Dominguez's hat-trick of drop goals the only one by an Italian player. English players have scored the most hat-tricks with 18, while France, Ireland and Scotland have conceded the most, with 12 each. Three players have scored a hat-trick and been on the losing side; Robert Montgomery in Ireland's 0–1 loss to Wales in 1887,^[10] Howard Marshall in England's 11–12 defeat to Wales in 1893,^[11] and Émile Ntamack in France's 33–34 loss to Wales in 1999.^[12] Lescarboura's hat-trick against England in 1985 and Jenkins' against Scotland in 2001, are the only times the feat has been achieved with the match ending in a draw.^{[13] [14]} The most recent hat-trick was achieved by Blair Kinghorn (Scotland) against Italy on 18 March 2023.^[15]

Hat-tricks

• All statistics are correct as of 6 February 2022.

Key
^4	Player scored four tries
^5	Player scored five tries

Tries

No.! scope=col

Player	scope=col	For	scope=col	Against	scope=col	Result	scope=col	Venue	scope=col	Date
1	scope=row					St. Helen's, Swansea
2	scope=row	^5				Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
3	scope=row					Birkenhead Park
4	scope=row				14–0	Ballynafeigh, Belfast
5	scope=row				11–12	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
6	scope=row	^4			26–3	St. Helen's, Swansea
7	scope=row				21–5	St. Helen's, Swansea
8	scope=row				29–0	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
9	scope=row				49–14	St. Helen's, Swansea
10	scope=row				27–0	Inverleith, Edinburgh
11	scope=row				19–3	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
12	scope=row				32–10	Inverleith, Edinburgh
13	scope=row				21–3	Parc des Princes, Paris
14	scope=row				20–0	Twickenham, London
15	scope=row	^4			29–14	Inverleith, Edinburgh
16	scope=row				24–0	Mardyke, Cork
17	scope=row				16–15	Inverleith, Edinburgh
18	scope=row				39–13	Stade Olympique de Colombes
19	scope=row	^4			39–13	Stade Olympique de Colombes
20	scope=row				28–4	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
21	scope=row				35–10	Inverleith, Edinburgh
22	scope=row				19–7	Twickenham, London
23	scope=row	^4			25–4	Inverleith, Edinburgh
24	scope=row	^4			24–14	St. Helen's, Swansea
25	scope=row				20–6	Stade Olympique de Colombes
26	scope=row				14–11	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
27	scope=row				26–8	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
28	scope=row				13–0	Stade Olympique de Colombes
29	scope=row				24–5	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
30	scope=row	^4			30–9	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
31	scope=row				30–18	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
32	scope=row				28–22	Parc des Princes, Paris
33	scope=row				35–3	Twickenham, London
34	scope=row				37–21	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
35	scope=row				32–15	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
36	scope=row				33–34	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
37	scope=row				59–12	Stadio Flaminio, Rome
38	scope=row				27–25	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
39	scope=row				41–22	Stadio Flaminio, Rome
40	scope=row				44–15	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
41	scope=row				43–22	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
42	scope=row				50–9	Stadio Flaminio, Rome
43	scope=row				39–7	Twickenham, London
44	scope=row				43–22	Twickenham, London
45	scope=row				26–21	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
46	scope=row	^4			59–13	Twickenham, London
47	scope=row				61–20	Stadio Olimpico, Rome
48				40–9	Stadio Olimpico, Rome
49				63–10	Stadio Olimpico, Rome
50				63–10	Stadio Olimpico, Rome
51				61–21	Twickenham, London
52				33–20	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
53				44–8	Twickenham, London
54				42–0	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
55				37–10	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
56				26–14	Murrayfield, Edinburgh
57	Duhan van der Merwe			30-21	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	25 February 2024

Multiple hat-tricks

Player! scope=col

No.	scope=col	Years
scope=row		3	1924, 1925
scope=row		2	1907, 1910
scope=row		2	1910, 1911
scope=row		2	1913
scope=row		2	1914
scope=row		2	2000, 2002
scope=row		2	2016, 2017
scope=row		2	2019, 2023

Drop goals

No.! scope=col

Player	scope=col	For	scope=col	Against	scope=col	Result	scope=col	Venue	scope=col	Date
1	scope=row				23–6	Stade Olympique de Colombes
2	scope=row					Twickenham, London
3	scope=row				34–20	Stadio Flaminio, Rome
4	scope=row				28–28	Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Player hat-tricks by their national team

Team! scope=col

Tries for	scope=col	Tries against	scope=col	Drop goals for	scope=col	Drop goals against	scope=col	Total for	scope=col	Total against
scope=row		18	4	0	1	18	5
scope=row		12	9	0	2	12	11
scope=row		10	8	1	0	11	8
scope=row		9	10	0	1	9	11
scope=row		7	12	2	0	9	12
scope=row		0	13	1	0	1	14

See also

• List of Rugby World Cup hat-tricks
• List of Six Nations Championship Player of the Championship winners
• List of Six Nations Championship records

Bibliography

• Book: Smith . David . Williams . Gareth . Fields of Praise: The Official History of The Welsh Rugby Union . 1980 . University of Wales Press . Cardiff . 0-7083-0766-3.

References

General

• Web site: Six Nations – Most tries scored. ESPN. 6 July 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140716032158/http://stats.espnscrum.com/statsguru/rugby/stats/index.html?class=1%3Bfilter%3Dadvanced%3Borderby%3Ddate%3Bsize%3D200%3Btemplate%3Dresults%3Btriesmin1%3D3%3Btriesval1%3Dtries%3Btrophy%3D2%3Btype%3Dplayer%3Bview%3Dmatch. 16 July 2014.
• News: Six Nations – Most drop goals . ESPN . 17 November 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150520235821/http://stats.espnscrum.com/statsguru/rugby/stats/index.html?class=1%3Bfilter%3Dadvanced%3Borderby%3Ddrop_goals%3Btemplate%3Dresults%3Btrophy%3D2%3Btype%3Dplayer%3Bview%3Dmatch . 20 May 2015 .

Specific

Notes and References

1. News: Six Nations history . BBC Sport . 28 January 2002 . 29 April 2016 .
2. News: England's early great three-quarter . ESPN . 22 January 2013 . 7 May 2016 . Huw . Richards .
3. Web site: Wales 0G – 2G England (FT). ESPN. 6 July 2014.
4. Web site: Why a try? . England Rugby . 10 May 2015 .
5. News: Five/Six Nations Records . Belfast Telegraph . 24 January 2014 . 10 May 2015 .
6. News: Ian Smith's record safe as Scotland try hard but fail to cross line at Murrayfield . The Daily Telegraph . 1 March 2011 . 18 November 2015 . Alasdair . Reed .
7. News: The International Championship 1883 to 2003 . The Daily Telegraph . 8 February 2004 . 7 May 2016 . John . Griffiths .
8. Web site: VIDEO: Stander and Gilroy make history with hat-tricks. 11 February 2017. rbs6nations.com. 12 February 2017.
9. News: Six nations facts and figures . BBC Sport . 25 January 2007 . 18 November 2015 .
10. Web site: Ireland 0G–1G Wales . ESPN . 11 May 2016 .
11. News: Elements leave their mark in Cardiff . ESPN . 13 February 2009 . 11 May 2016 .
12. News: The day Wales painted Paris red . The Independent . 8 March 1999 . 18 November 2015 . Tim . Glover .
13. News: The day Andrew rescued England . SA Rugby Magazine . 31 January 2014 . 18 November 2015 . Jeremy . Proome .
14. News: Late Scottish surge frustrates Wales . BBC News . 17 February 2001 . 11 May 2016 .
15. News: Six Nations 2023: Scotland 26-14 Italy — Gregor Townsend's side survive late onslaught. Tom. English. 18 March 2023. BBC Sport. 18 March 2023.