Rugby World Cup Begins With Underwhelming Performance From England

The Rugby World Cup began on Friday with a powerful display by Argentina condemning host nation France to defeat in the very first match of the tournament.

Saturday saw the first game involving one of the home nations, as England took on the USA in a contest that was not as one-sided as some might have expected.

Coverage began at 4.30pm on ITV1 – unfortunately up against the England v Israel football match on BBC One at the same time – and a peak of 756,000 ABC1 Men (a 20.6% share) watched England turn in an underwhelming performance against one of the tournament’s unfancied teams.

The ITV1 coverage, which finished at 7pm, had an average of 582,000 ABC1 Men (an 18.4% share) watching throughout its two and a half hour running time.

After 20 minutes of the match, the score was 3-3 with England – the current world champions – looking a little short of ideas.

The plucky Eagles tried their hearts out and, for a team with just a couple of professional players, they can be proud of the way in which they played, and also of the fact that they managed to stop England scoring the four or more tries which would have earned them a bonus point in the group.

With regard to all adult viewers, the coverage had a peak audience of 2.5 million adults (a 16.3% share) and an average of 1.9 million adults stayed with it for its duration.

Sunday saw Wales take on Canada in the 1pm match and, like the English, the Welsh made hard work of seemingly limited opponents.

In the end, they ran out 42-17 winners, whilst Scotland, who played newcomers Portugal, made their experience count and won 56-10 in an enjoyable game.

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