The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 12th series of the Six Nations Championship, and the 117th edition of the international championship. The annual rugby union tournament was contested by England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales, and was won by England. Ireland played their first Six Nations games at the Aviva Stadium, having played their first matches at the new stadium in November 2010. For the first time in its history, the tournament opened with a Friday night fixture. For the first time in a decade, all of the teams had the same head coach as in the previous year's tournament. This tournament was also notable for a major upset, with Italy beating 2010 champions France. Despite this upset, Italy still finished last, and was awarded the wooden spoon as a result. The champions were England, who won their first four matches, but were denied the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown by a defeat to Ireland. Italy's Andrea Masi was named the Six Nations Player of the Championship, becoming the first Italian player to win the award with 30% of the voting. The runners up were Fabio Semenzato in second, Seán O'Brien in third and Toby Flood in fourth.

Final results

England won the championship after winning four out of their five matches, losing against Ireland. Due to France defeating Wales in the final match of the tournament, England ended the tournament at the top of the table. Had England beaten Ireland it would have led to their first Grand Slam since 2003. Italy lost their final match against Scotland to claim the wooden spoon for the ninth time since entering the competition in 2000.

Participants

Squads

Table

Results

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Top scorers

Try scorers

Points scorers

Media coverage

In the United Kingdom, BBC channels televised the matches live. The matches were also televised by France 2 in France, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Sky Sport in Italy and ESPN in Australia and New Zealand. In Wales, Welsh language channel S4C televised Wales matches live. In the United States and the Caribbean, Premium Sports televised the matches live while BBC America also televised some matches in the United States.