Sales up by 25% for latest Six Nations fixtures

By Gary Lloyd

- Last updated on GMT

You have been served: England suffered a record loss but fans kept the on-trade going (credit: Getty/Ridofranz)
You have been served: England suffered a record loss but fans kept the on-trade going (credit: Getty/Ridofranz)

Related tags Finance Pubco + head office Sport Rugby

England may have suffered their heaviest loss at Twickenham in the Six Nations tournament at the weekend but the UK on-trade was left cheering as sales grew by 25% versus an average weekend.

A monstrous 21.8m pints were sold across the two days of rugby at the weekend (11-12 March) with the average pub serving 648 pints of draught beer or cider, which resulted in a £2,624 income generator for pubs and bars, according to insight expert Oxford Partnership.

It found the average pub served an extra 129 pints over the weekend versus a typical weekend.

Thirstiest rugby fans

Despite a mauling for England inflicted by France with a final score of 53-10 to the visitors, Scotland lost to Ireland – the best team in the world currently – at Murrayfield with a scoreline of 22-7 to the away team.

But pubs in Scotland were still home to the thirstiest rugby fans as the average site saw an uplift of 187 pints, followed by England pubs that rose by 96 pints.

However, round 4 may have seen Wales impress against Italy on Roman soil on Saturday with their first win in the tournament so far but back home, Welsh pubs saw a fall of 31 pints per site during the weekend.

Success at the till

Oxford Partnership chief executive Alison Jordan said: “Even though the results of the weekend’s rugby were not what the Home Nations’ fans were hoping for, at least the on-trade managed to enjoy some well-earned success at the till, yet again demonstrating the unassailable power of sport for our pubs.”

The final round of matches all take place this Saturday (18 March). First up is Scotland v Italy at Murrayfield, which kicks off at 12.30pm. Paris is host to France v Wales at 2.45pm and the last match of the tournament will see Ireland go for a grand slam against an England team in shreds under new coach Steve Borthwick with wins against Italy and Wales only.

Related topics Sport

Related news

Show more