England hold the record with a mammoth scoreline against Italy
There is fame and ignominy wrapped into one with the record for highest score in Six Nations history. But who has it?
Well in 2001, England got the record for most points scored by one team, and the match has the record for highest cumulative scoreline, when the English won 80-23 against Italy, at Twickenham.
In that match, England scored ten tries, with Jonny Wilkinson landing nine conversions and four penalties. With a try to his name too, the legendary fly-half finished with a personal haul of 35 points – yes, you guessed it, that’s also the record for most points scored by one player in a Six Nations match.
Also contributing to the highest score in Six Nations history that day was Austin Healey (pictured above) who scored two for England, as did Iain Balshaw. With Wilkinson’s one, and tries for Ben Cohen, Lawrence Dallaglio, Will Greenwood, Mark Regan and Joe Worsley, it was a blockbuster day for fans of tries.
As a consolation, the Italians scored tries through Carlo Checchinato and Denis Dallan, with Andrea Scanavacca getting both conversions and adding three penalty kicks.
That day, Wilkinson said post-match: “It was a difficult game today” So you can only imagine what the scoreline would have been had it been dubbed an easy day…
If you’re interested, the most points ever scored by a losing side also came in 2021, but it wasn’t Italy that day against England, with their 23 – it was in fact by France that same year, scoring 35 points in defeat to Wales. The French repeated that trick again in 2015 as they scored 35 points in a loss against England.
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