Last month, following Louane’s confirmation as the French representative for Eurovision 2025, it was announced that her entry will debut at halftime of the France-Scotland match in the Six Nations. If you’re tuning in for Louane but have never watched rugby before, you may want to know what’s going on. So, here is a Eurofan’s guide to the Six Nations:
What is the Six Nations?
The Six Nations is an annual rugby competition between England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy. Each team plays each other over six weeks from roughly the end of January to the middle of March. Whoever finishes the tournament with the most points is the champion. There are only five matches per team, so winning every match is crucial. The tournament has been going on since 1883 in various iterations, initially with just England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, before France joined initially in 1910 and Italy joined in 2000, when it became known as the Six Nations. In its current form, England have the most titles at seven, followed by France, Ireland and Wales all at six. Scotland and Italy have never won the Six Nations.
How does rugby work?
So, arguably the most important question, how does rugby work? Well, there are two different types of rugby, rugby league (not relevant here) and rugby union (relevant here). Within that there are another two types of rugby, sevens (not relevant here) and 15s (relevant here). A better question may be, how does this specific type of rugby work?
So, the type of rugby in the Six Nations is 15s. As the name may suggest, there are 15 players on the field per team. These are split into two groups: the forwards and the backs. I won’t go massively into the specifics of each position but here’s the basic idea. There are eight forwards (who conveniently wear numbers 1-8 on their shirts) whose main focus is to gain and regain possession of the ball. These are the bigger guys, who will take part in the scrums. The other seven players are the backs (they’ll have 9-15 on their shirts). Their main job is to create and convert scoring opportunities, so they will typically be smaller and more lean.
Each team also has a maximum of eight substitutes, who will have the shirt numbers 16-23. These will usually be split 6/2 or 7/1 in favour of the forwards. Typically, teams will use most, if not all of their substitutes.
How do they score points?
Another important question, how do they score? The primary method of scoring is via tries. A player scores a try when they down the ball in the in-goal area at the end of the pitch, which will score five points. The team then attempts a conversion, kicking the ball between the posts, to score an extra two points. After a team commits a penalty, the opposing team can kick attempt a penalty kick for three points. You can also score a drop kick by dropping the ball and kicking it over the crossbar and between the uprights for three points, though this is less common.
In terms of points gained after a match, it’s a little more complicated. You pick up four points for a win, two for a draw and zero for a loss. However, in rugby, you can get a bonus point for scoring at least four tries in a match or for losing by less than seven points. So, for instance, if the match ends 34-28, both teams would get the try bonus point and the losing team would also get the close loss bonus point for losing by six points.
When is Louane on?
If you’re just here to see Louane, then you’ll have to wait until around 21:45 CET for her performance. While it will be shown on France 2’s broadcast, it probably will not elsewhere. The performance will be streamed on the EBU’s YouTube channel, which you can check out below.
Will you be tuning into Louane’s reveal? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, Tumblr, and Bluesky for everything you need to know about Eurovision 2025!
Photo Credit: Six Nations (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)
Rosie