48 games in 44 days. A telling statistic on the scale of the RWC but one which is only the tip of the iceberg now the dust is settling on the Tournament which has been dubbed “best ever”.
The 600 players involved in the Tournament used 64 hotels in which to amass 36,000 hotel room nights. The same players made 980 coach trips and used 900 rugby balls. Once the 700 tonnes of freight had arrived for the teams, they then made use of 150 different training venues.
The training grounds alone provided enough statistics to drive an accountant to the drink. The venue used 2,040 marker cones and 28 scrum machines. Defence was obviously a factor as teams hit 200 tackle bags, 570 tackle suits and 300 bump shields.
All that training is thirsty work. In order to quench such thirst the players drank 100,000 litres of water a 100 tonnes of ice. If that didn’t cool them off, they could have used one of the 40 ice baths in operation.
It is also sweaty work. But being creatures of hygiene, the players made 900 team laundry washes and 8,000 personal washes.
All that hard work put on a great show, with 2 million spectators attending the RWC. This included 400 jumbos of international tourists and 500,000 Australian bed night giving plenty of rest to the 40,000 overseas visitors.
For those at home the action was relayed by one of 1,818 accredited journalists. These guys weren’t the only ones working at the venues either. After 10,500 expressions of interest to be a volunteer, 1,000 were appointed as match day assistants, media and accreditation assistants and Rugby Service managers. The Opening Ceremony alone was made possible through the efforts of 220 volunteers.
For those not at the game, there was plenty of people tuning in on TV. The RWC Final gripped an audience of 4.34 million making it the most watched television program of the year. Through out the Tournament the 31,525,000 viewers tuned into the Seven Network’s coverage.
Our own rugbyworldcup.com had 495 million hits over the Tournament including 44.5 million hits on the day of the Final.
One Tournament can produce a lot of numbers.