And what a weekend that was for the nations! Scottish profligacy, Irish ruthlessness, French resurrection, English ineptitude, Welsh strength in depth(?) and continued Italian woe.
The fourth round of the Six Nations delivered a championship for Ireland, another away loss for Scotland and further evidence that the wheels are coming off Eddie’s chariot. (N.B. This was written post Shitgate so gloating should be anticipated, assimilated and treated jovially).
This week, we also ask: “Has the French rugby team ever been more popular outside France?”
What’s happened to volume?
Interestingly, following Scotland’s wonderful, but largely unexpected win a fortnight ago, we’re seeing total engagement dip slightly. One objective of our final report is to see if we can identify which team has the ficklest fandom.
We’re not going to answer why today, but could this volume decline be a sign of English or Scottish fans piping down? “You only tweet when you’re winning”.
Number of mentions
Fourth round results:
Ireland 28– 8 Scotland
France 22 – 16 England ?
Wales 38 – 14 Italy
How did the fans respond and who was most upset/ecstatic?
Ireland clinched the championship a week early. A ruthlessly efficient performance saw them overcome a spirited, but wasteful Scotland side. Not surprisingly, joyfulness abounded in Ireland. In Scotland, anger over another away loss and missed chances was tempered by a feeling of positivity that things are still heading the right way.
The fans of the week-award goes to the French, showing overwhelming Joie at having vanquished les Rosbifs. Behind Joy was Fear however, as the final few minutes threatened to see them overhauled. Beauxis, what on earth were you thinking????
Another key objective for this report is to try and find out which fans feel the most entitled. The reaction of England fans to their team’s second loss in a row was largely surprise, which serves as an interesting indicator for this sense of entitlement. Joy was the second most visible emotion, driven by a frenetic final few minutes as England looked as if they were about to snatch an unlikely and thoroughly unmerited victory. ?
Welsh fans were joyful enough, due to a pretty convincing victory over Italy with a second-string team and overtaking England to lie in second place in the championship going into the final weekend. ? A bit of Anger was reserved for Liam Williams’ yellow card.
Italy performed well on the pitch, but their fans appear to have suffered too long.
The most popular team of the week?
Who do you think?
The biggest memes of the week
- Merci, France!
- A poor performance
- Roll on Paddy’s Day
Finally, this is what we predicted last week:
“A Welsh romp, an English backlash and a burst Scottish bubble.”
Well, two out of three isn’t bad.
As for next week…
An Irish slam, an Italian upset, Wales to finish second, with England over-achieving in fifth. ?
Oliver has 15+ years experience as a research professional, including roles as Head of Social Insight leading agencies and tool providers. He has worked closely with clients in a range of industries to develop bespoke solutions for their research needs and is constantly looking for new ways of doing things that leverage data and technology most efficiently.
