Rugby vocabulary to know if watching the Six Nations in France

The 2026 Six Nations rugby championship is underway, with France claiming a 36-14 victory against Ireland in the opening match last Thursday (February 5). 

Defending champions France will be looking to retain their title this year. They will also be aiming to win a grand chelem (grand slam), a term used when a team wins all of their matches during the championship. This was first achieved by Wales in 1908, and most recently by Ireland in 2023.

Whether listening to French commentators on TV or watching games in a French bar with friends, The Connexion gives the rundown on key rugby terms to know.

French rugby terms

While some French rugby terms are borrowed from the English language, there are still plenty that are worth learning.

We will start with the rugby positions. The team is composed of arrières (backs), avants (forwards) who are nicknamed ‘les gros’, demi d’ouverture (fly-half) who usually wear the number 10 jersey, demi de mêlée (scrum-half) wearing the number 9 jersey. The captain of France's national team, Antoine Dupont, plays the demi de mêlée position.

Next, during a match you may hear commentators using specific terms to refer to different actions.

They include: un tampon (huge tackle or big hit), une cuillère (ankle tap), when a diving player touches the feet of a running opponent to make him lose balance, chistera, when a player passes the ball behind their back, en avant (knock-on), le passe en avant (forward pass).

Antoine Dupont did a cuillère on Finn Russell when France faced Scotland in 2023.

All high tackles or tête-à-tête (head to head) actions are considered dangerous and will be penalised.

Specific illegal actions include une cravate (high tackle), when a player pushes an opponent with his arms above the shoulders, and une cathédrale (spear tackle) when a player is tipped upside down and lands on his back, neck or head.

However forbidden, a cathédrale was witnessed in 1998 when Philippe Carbonneau lifted David Rees.

Depending on how much pressure the opposing team are putting on France, you can expect to hear some French people asking players to botter la balle en touche (kick the ball in touch), lâcher la balle (give the ball) or make excessive use of chandelle (up and under).

Others may ask the referee to bring out la biscotte - more commonly known as le carton (yellow card).

Other terms you might hear are French supporters marvelling at include moves such as a crochet (side-step), passe après contact (off-load), quadrage-débordement - also shortened as quad-deb (fix and side step), or raffût (a hand-off) - when a player runs with the ball while pushing their opponant away.

Read also: Scotland and Ireland, then France, top readers’ support in Six Nations

Team nicknames 

Rugby fans and sports commentators often use nicknames when referring to the different teams competing in the Six Nations championship. These names tend to stem from a team's logo or the colour of their kit:

• Scotland - Le quinze du chardon (the 15 thistles) 
• Ireland - Le quinze du trefle (the 15 shamrocks)
• Wales - Le quinze du poireau (the 15 leeks) or les dragons rouges (the red dragons)
• England - Le quinze de la rose (the 15 roses) or les rosbifs (the roast beefs) 
• Itlay - Azzurri (the blues - in Italian)
• France - Les bleus (the blues - in French)

The following picture is often used by French rugby supporters. It was originally a promotional poster for the betting company PMU, published ahead of the France-England match at the European Football Championship in 2012.

The tag line translates as "We're ready to tie up the English" and depicts a cockerel (representing the French team) tying up a cut of beef (representing the English team).

You may see the image circualting on social media ahead of Le Crunch.  

What is Le Crunch?

The term Le Crunch is used to refer to a France-England match. 

There is some doubt over the origins of the phrase. It has been claimed in some French media outlets that the term dates back to the first ever meeting between the two nations at Parc des Princes in 1906.

But the first verifiable use of the term Le Crunch to describe the clash between the two proud rugby nations was in the Irish Times in 1981, and there is evidence the paper borrowed an advertising slogan for French Golden Delicious apples as a pop-culture reference dating back to the 1970s.

It also links to the English expression “crunch time,” which is used to refer to a crucial or decisive moment.

In 2026, Le Crunch is set to take place on Saturday, March 14, at 21:10 - the final match of the championship - and will be broadcast on France 2.