Ireland hold off France to win Grand Slam – Six Nations in numbers

A look at the key numbers from this year’s tournament.

Johnny Sexton and Ireland celebrated a Grand Slam triumph (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)

Ireland held off France to win the Six Nations Grand Slam and captain Johnny Sexton broke a championship record.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the key numbers from this year’s tournament.

15 – Ireland’s title win is their 15th overall and their fourth since the Six Nations era began in 2000.

3 – They have now won three Six Nations Grand Slams, following their successes in 2009 and 2018. They also won a Five Nations slam in 1948.

566 – Ireland fly-half Sexton became the championship’s all-time record points scorer, passing predecessor Ronan O’Gara’s mark of 557 with the first of his nine against England in his final appearance in the competition before retirement.

66 – Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones passed Brian O’Driscoll’s second-ranked total of 65 appearances in the competition but remains short of former Italy captain Sergio Parisse’s record of 69.

5 – France’s Damian Penaud was 2023’s leading try-scorer.

3 – Blair Kinghorn’s three tries against Italy brought up Scotland’s first Six Nations hat-trick since Kinghorn himself achieved the feat in 2019’s equivalent fixture. He is only the eighth player with multiple hat-tricks in the Six Nations or its previous incarnations.

84 – France’s Thomas Ramos was the leading points scorer with 84, fully 49 clear of his nearest challenger Sexton and only five off the all-time record.

91 – This season’s record overall try tally, beating the 84 in 2019.

18 – Italy have now taken the wooden spoon in 18 of their 24 Six Nations campaigns.

135/18 – Points and tries conceded by England, beating their worst records in a Six Nations campaign of 121 points in 2021 and 13 tries in 2019. Their 53-10 defeat to France was also their heaviest in the championship’s history.

100 – Scotland’s Stuart Hogg, Wales’ Taulupe Faletau and England’s Dan Cole reached a century of caps for their respective nations during this year’s tournament.