It is a common belief that teams within sporting competition, involving both home and away fixtures will likely perform better within the home environment. This concept has been referred to as the `home advantage` (HA) (Courneya & Carron, 1992). Principally, HA stipulates that the number of wins and/or points accrued by a given team within home competition, will usually exceed that of corresponding away performances across the course of a competitive season. Indeed, within soccer, the strong prevalence of home nation victories across previous FIFA World Cup finals (1930, 1934, 1966, 1974, 1978 &1998 (32%)), in addition to the stark increase in British medals achieved during the London 2012 Olympics may serve to validate both the existence and influence of this phenomenon. However, aside from establishing the percentage points achieved at home by each team (Garcia, et al., 2012) and the rather crude statistics highlighting the commonality of hosting nations within Rugby World Cup Finals (5/8; 63%), there would appear to be a lack of objective evidence regarding the level of HA within Six Nations competition. As such, the aim of the study was to twofold; investigate, 1) the existence of HA and 2) the level of `home benefit` within Six Nations rugby (2000-2015). A database of points scored (tries, penalties, conversions and drop goals) and competition standing points (Win - 2, Draw - 1, Lose - 0) achieved by each team competing within 240 Six Nations matches (2000-2015) was collated. Data was subsequently separated into home and away performance to establish associated differences. Data was analysed within two ways. Firstly, the points scored (`PS`) by teams home vs. away were investigated to outline the `home benefit`, and thus outline whether teams were more successful (i.e. scoring more points or conceding less) within home performance. Secondly, the distribution (i.e. percentage) of league standing points gained (Points Achieved - `PA`) at home was investigated to establish whether teams win a greater proportion of league points at home, thus implying a HA. Each team within the Six Nations, on average, performs better at home. Specifically, the home team scores more or concedes less than their respective away performance (table 1), thus demonstrating a positive `home benefit`. Overall, HA within the Six Nations tournament was worth 8.6 points (i.e. > 1 converted try). The consistently weaker teams based upon cumulative PA and championships won (Scotland and Italy) are the teams whom gain the majority of their standing points at home. Italy and Scotland gained > 75 % in comparison to the 61, 58, 56 and 54 % identified for England, France, Ireland and Wales respectively. The PS by a team has a positive relationship with the HA, thus following the concept that teams perform better at home. However, the PA and thus, tournament standings has an inverse relationship with the HA. Generally for a team to top the standings overall, the team would be required to be consistent at gaining points both, home and away. Overall, HA appears to exist within Six Nations rugby, however, having the greatest HA (score line benefit or percentage of standing points achieved at home) does not guarantee tournament success. Other factors, such as the crowd and venue familiarity all contribute in some manner to how players perform, however, such factors and their effects are often not something that can be easily assessed, quantified and planned for. Future research should therefore incorporate technical performance variables to further shed light upon the phenomenon.
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