England’s dramatic loss to Wales in the Rugby World Cup drew more than 10 million viewers on Saturday, making it the most-watched rugby match since the final of the 2007 tournament.
ITV’s broadcast of the game, which leaves England on the brink of going out of the tournament at the group stages for the first time, drew an average of 10.4 million viewers.
Its full coverage from 7.15pm to 10.20pm picked up an average of 8.3 million and a 38% share, with a peak of at 11.6 million at 9.50pm, a 49% share.
The cliffhanger, which saw Wales come from 10 points down and England controversially decide against a last-minute penalty kick at goal that could have drawn the match, leaves England needing to beat Australia on Saturday or face going out of the tournament.
For ITV the ratings bonanza means bumper advertising revenues and with England in jeopardy the Australia match is guaranteed to attract a huge audience.
However, if England were to go out in the pool stages for the first time it would be a commercial disaster for ITV, which will not attract anywhere near the same audiences for matches between other nations.
England v Fiji, the opening Rugby World Cup match, peaked at 9.4 million with an average audience of 7.8 million.
By contrast, earlier on Saturday the closely-fought Italy v Canada game averaged just 1.5 million viewers. And South Africa’s must-win match against Samoa drew just 2.7 million.
