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Rugby World Cup 2015 off to record-breaking start

Xinhua, September 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The total match attendance of the 2015 Rugby World Cup is approaching the one million mark with the tournament at the halfway point of the Pool stage, organizers said here on Tuesday.

England Rugby 2015 and Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) announced that the World Cup is on track to be the biggest Rugby World Cup to date, and total match attendance figure to date has reached 972,921, helped by two record-breaking attendances at Wembley. 89,267 fans attended the Ireland vs Romania match at Wembley Stadium, surpassing the previous weekend's record breaking Rugby World Cup crowd of 89,019.

Playing in front of packed stadia, teams including the United States, Georgia, Japan and Namibia have received strong support with Romania playing in front of 140,000 fans across just two pool matches.

The official Fanzones throughout England and in Cardiff have seen fans keen to soak up the match atmosphere and feel part of the international event, with 378,000 visitors to date passing through the doors since opening.

Rugby World Cup Limited has confirmed the tournament has attracted some of the highest broadcast audience figures around the globe, including in Japan, the host nation for Rugby World Cup 2019. The 20 million audience in Japan for Japan vs Scotland represents the second-highest ever national TV audience in Rugby World Cup history, behind the 20.7 million viewership for the Rugby World Cup 2007 France vs England semifinal.

In the UK, a peak audience of 9.4 million UK viewers tuned in to host broadcaster ITV's coverage of the Opening Ceremony and kick-off match between Fiji and England on September 18. The England vs Wales match was watched by an average of 10.4 million viewers, the largest rugby audience in the UK since the 2007 final.

World Rugby Chairman, Bernard Lapasset, said: "Rugby World Cup 2015 is proving to be a very special and record-breaking global celebration of rugby that has fan experience at heart. This is already the most talked about Rugby event ever on social media and the most talked about sporting event of 2015 in the UK, and there is no doubt that the unforgettable moments are inspiring new audiences around the world to get active and get into Rugby." Endi