There is an assumption that any team that loses all five games in the Six Nations will come bottom. Thus winning the metaphorical (and much unwanted) trophy - The Wooden Spoon.
But is this necessarily the case, in these days of Try Bonus and Losing Bonus Points? And if it is not inevitable that a whitewashed team comes last, who collects The Wooden Spoon?
Can you work out if a team which loses all its games can finish higher than sixth? And if this is possible, how high a position can they achieve?
A team that loses all five games will get no points for Wins and Draws, but could collect five Try Bonus Points and five Losing Bonus Points. A Try Bonus Point is gained by scoring four tries in the game, and the Losing Bonus Point is gained by losing by seven points or fewer.
This gives a total of ten points.
If another team beats the "whipping boys", loses to all the other four teams and picks up no Bonus Points, they get four points for the win. So our team could come fifth.
If two teams beat our team, draw the game between themselves, lose to the other three teams, again with no Bonus Points, they both get get four points for the win and two points for the draw. A total of six points, so our team could come fourth.
Similarly, if three teams beat our team, draw the games between themselves, lose to the other two teams, again with no Bonus Points, they both get get four points for the win and two points for each of the draws. A total of eight points, so our team could come third.
Amazingly, if four teams beat our team, draw the games between themselves, lose to the other team, again with no Bonus Points, they both get get four points for the win and two points for each of the draws. A total of ten points, the same as our team.
It would then come down to points difference. The team that lost every game has to have lost each game narrowly to have gained the Losing Bonus Points. In the (admittedly unlikely) event that the four other teams on ten points were hammered by the winning team . . .
A team could lose all five games in the Six Nations and still finish second!