In a recent search analysis of the tournament’s playmakers, Dan Carter’s groin injury achieved the highest search spike throughout the tournament spanning six weeks, while Sonny Bill Williams achieved the most searches overall, peaking after the opening game “Ripped Shirt” incident.
Searches for Quade Cooper after the Wallabies’ semi-final against the New Zealanders, came in at just 1% under Dan Carter, although Carter was consistently searched more than Cooper over the six weeks.
Deserving captain Richie McCaw peaked in Google searches after Sunday night’s final. IRB Coach of the Year Graeme Henry doesn’t rank at all in the searches, while IRB Player of the Tournament French Thierry Dusautoir only makes the smallest of inroads in search statistics after Les Bleus left the tournament with only second-place medals.
In Google Image searches, Sonny Bill Williams tops searches throughout the tournament by a long way: losing out to Dan Carter only by 4% on October 2 and by 5% after the final, where Carter took the attention of searchers around the world.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world challenged New Zealand in the number of searches for “Rugby”. Fiji is awarded with most searches, with Kiwis searching for the keyword 25% less.
Regional interest in Rugby:
1. Fiji
2. New Zealand
3. South Africa
4. Namibia
5. Ireland
6. United Kingdom
7. Madagascar
8. France
9. Australia
10. Botswana
Posted by Kate Mason, Google Australia and New Zealand Communications
