1975 Five Nations Championship

1975 Five Nations Championship
Date	18 January - 15 March 1975
Countries	England Ireland France Scotland Wales
Tournament statistics
Champions	Wales (18th title)
Matches played	10
Tries scored	36 (3.6 per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Billy McCombe (26)
Top try scorer(s)	Gerald Davies (3)
← 1974 (Previous) (Next) 1976 →

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

The teams involved were:

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

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
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

Squads

For each nation's squad for the 1975 Five Nations Championship, see 1975 Five Nations Championship squads.

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)

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1 February 1975

England	20–27	France
Tries: Duckham Rossborough Pen.: Rossborough (4)		Tries: Etchenique Gourdon Guilbert Spanghero Con.: Paries (4) Pen.: Paries

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)

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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.: Paries Drops: Astre		Pen.: Irvine (3)

Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 43,472 Referee: M. S. Lewis (Wales)

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1 March 1975

Ireland	25–6	France
Tries: Ensor Grace McBride Con.: McCombe (2) Pen.: McCombe Drops: McCombe (2)		Pen.: Paries Drops: Paries

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: 82,000 Referee: J. R. West (Ireland)

• Source - Quinn, Encyclopaedia of World Rugby

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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)

References

• 1975 Five Nations results

External links

• The official RBS Six Nations Site