Grand Slam (rugby union) Grand Slam (rugby union) In rugby union, a Grand Slam (Irish: "Caithréim Mhór". Welsh: "Y Gamp Lawn". French: "Grand Chelem") occurs when one team in the Six Nations Championship (or its Five Nations predecessor) manages to beat all the others during one year's competition. This has been achieved 39 times in total, for the first time by Wales in 1908, and most recently by Ireland in 2018. The team to have won the most Grand Slams is England with 13. In another context, a Grand Slam tour refers to a touring side – South Africa, Australia or New Zealand –
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