Like most rugby fans, you’ve probably never wondered what a combined Men’s Senior and U20s Six Nations table would look like.
Never mind. We have.
Firstly, the disclaimers. We realise this isn’t a particularly scientific exercise. Each nation approaches the U20s tournament with its own philosophy. For instance, some rotate line ups more than others and some U20 squads are missing players who may have already been called up to the senior squad (or may be on club duty). Others may focus more on the World Championships and treat the Six Nations as the key testing ground for their global domination later in the year.
That’s fine. This is more a fun ‘pub debate’ post than a rigorous analysis of the playing depth of the top European international teams.
To get everything in context, here are the standings for the Senior Men’s Six Nations and the U20s version to date.
MEN’S SENIOR
ROUND 1 France 43 Wales 0, Ireland 27 England 22, Scotland 31 Italy 19
ROUND 2: Italy 22 Wales 15, England 26 France 25, Scotland 18 Ireland 32
ROUND 3: Wales 18 Ireland 27, England 16 Scotland 15, Italy 24 France 73
U20s
ROUND 1: France 63 Wales 19, Ireland 3 England 19, Scotland 10 Italy 22
ROUND 2: Italy 18 Wales 20, England 27 France 10, Scotland 15 Ireland 33
ROUND 3: Wales 20 Ireland 12, England 57 Scotland 13, Italy 5 France 58
The East Terrace Senior Men’s/U20s Tables
We’ve done two tables for this experiment as there is merit in taking two slightly different approaches: ‘Overall Totals Table’ and the ‘Combined Scores Table’.
Overall Totals Table
Firstly, there is the Overall Totals Table approach. This table is created by simply adding together the tallies in both the Men’s Senior table and the U20s table. In other words, after round three you add each team’s three senior match tallies (wins, losses, points scored, bonus points, etc) with all the same figures from the U20s table.
That means the table will show, after Round 3, a total of six games for each nation (three from the Senior team and three from the U20 team).
England sit on top of this league thanks largely to their dominance at age-group level, where they are currently undefeated.
In contrast, Ireland drop down due to two losses at age-group level and Wales’s young whippersnapper wins help them reside at fourth, off the floor they occupy at Senior level. Scotland drop from their fourth place in the Senior table to the bottom of the pile.
Combined Scores Table
This table is arguably more fun. In this one we combine the Senior and U20s scores of nations against each other in each round to create a ‘new result’.
Let’s take France and Wales from the first round. The Senior French team won 43-0 and the U20s triumphed 63-19. We add those scores together to produce the result: France Combined 106 Wales 19. Ouch.
In this table, we therefore have ‘three’ games listed for each side. Obviously, this is a piece of fun and doesn’t stand up to a great deal of analytical scrutiny.
As a result, we’ve not included bonus points in this table as the system doesn’t work at all in this format.
Here are the combined results for each round:
ROUND 1
Ireland Combined 30 England Combined 41
France Combined 106 Wales Combined 19
Scotland Combined 41 Italy Combined 41
This combined format sees England take the overall win thanks to a 41-30 victory at U20 level, allowing them to overcome their 27-22 loss in the Seniors. Scotland and Italy, meanwhile, draw in the combined format with the Italy U20s away 22-10 win equalling the score out from what happened at Murrayfield with the men.
ROUND 2
Italy Combined 41 Wales Combined 35
England Combined 53 France Combined 35
Scotland Combined 33 Ireland Combined 65
Combining the scores in Round 2 mirrors the overall outcome of results Round 2 of the Senior tournament. Wales’s win against Italy at U20 level was only by two points and wasn’t enough to help get a victory in the combined fixture.
ROUND 3
Wales Combined 38 Ireland Combined 39
England Combined 73 Scotland Combined 28
Italy Combined 29 France Combined 131
Wales almost sneak a win here thanks to their shock 20-12 win at U20 level. But it isn’t quite enough to make up for the nine-point loss at the Principality Stadium. As a result, they are as lonely and winless as they are in the Men’s Senior version.
These results come together to produce this table:
Share your thoughts on this if you’d like on Bluesky with @jpstafford.
Check back in after Round Five of the Six Nations if you would like to see the final overall standings. We’ll also look to do a combined Senior Men’s, U20s and Women’s table later in the year.
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