The 2001 Six Nations Championship was the second series of the Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the hundred-and-seventh series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. The tournament was marred by an outbreak of the highly infectious livestock disease Foot and mouth disease in Britain. As a consequence, there were severe restrictions on travel especially between Britain and Ireland and thus it was decided to postpone Ireland's three fixtures against the home nations until the outbreak was contained. These games were then played in September and October. The eventual winners were England for the second year running, although they once again missed out on the Grand Slam at the final hurdle, losing to Irel