/ This Years Tournament
The tournament created more social media interactions in the first weekend than the entire tournament in 2011. 120m people had viewed the official RWC2015 video content via social media by October 12. 98 per cent of match tickets were sold, over 2.41 million – but many flooded back onto the market, officially and unofficially, after England’s demise. But more of that later.
/ TV Ratings
As for the TV ratings, England’s early exit also meant that potential quarter and semi-final matches that they would have appeared in would certainly affect the ratings and the brands that had bought into the ad breaks. Apparently ITV had held back ad slots for the final rounds on the basis of an increased premium for brands being able to capitalise on successful England performances and a pathway to the Final.
/ Going Forward
Whilst the RFU in England demonstrated yet again that it hasn’t the structure, method, personnel and reliability to mount a serious challenge on the field, it brilliantly proved off the field that it had the ability to host and help manage the finest Rugby World Cup to date. Brett Gosper and his team at World Rugby have set the bar high and Japan 2019 will be an enormous challenge, RWC2015 will be a hard act to follow but they should be rightly proud of what they achieved throughout this tournament.
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