2009 Six Nations Championship in total. England finished as runners-up, and they also won the Calcutta Cup. The 2009 tournament featured the first Friday night game in its history, played between France and Wales at the Stade de France. The tournament began on 7 February 2009, when England hosted Italy in the earlier of the day's two matches. Ireland played France later that evening, with Scotland versus Wales the following day. The reigning champions on entering the 2009 tournament were Wales, who won the Grand Slam and Triple Crown in 2008. The winners of both accolades in 2009 were Ireland, with Ronan O'Gara's dropped
Grand Slam (rugby union) are awarded the Six Nations trophy (as tournament winners), but there is no special grand slam trophy – the Grand Slam is an informal honour recognizing a Championship-winning team which has won all their games. Although the term "grand slam" had long been in use in the game of contract bridge, the first time that the expression is known to have been applied to rugby union was in 1957, in a preview of a match between England and Scotland: The Grand Slam honour is applied retroactively to teams which won all of their matches in Five Nations tournaments before the