The success of the Women’s Rugby World Cup will stand to Ireland in many ways over the coming years. Speaking to the Onside Sponsorship and Irish Marketing Institute Sponsorship Breakfast at the Aviva Stadium this morning, Garrett Tubridy zeroed in on a number of the positive numbers but also on how partnerships had played a crucial role in amplifying the event.

“We had teams coming in from around the world and they were our responsibility while they were here.”

“That meant the obvious logistics of creating stadia at UCD and Queens as well as hosting the Finals day at Kingspan Stadium but it was in the detail that we were particularly pleased to have scored so well in terms of players and team managements.

“Over the course of the 30 games and five match days, as well as the rest and recovery in between we served up 40,000 meals to players and coaches, taking into account specific nutrition needs, variety and consistency.”

That was no small order but that’s the kind of element that makes a tournament work from the inside as well as the outside.

There was a record attendance of 45,412 across the tournament and 45 million engagements through World Rugby channel with a gender split of 53/47 in favour of women, giving lie to the notion that Women’s sport was less appealing than the Men’s game.

Tubridy put the success down to a couple of reasons, with the first being to know your audience.

“There were three key motivators for people coming to the games. The third was to support friends and family, the second was to support women in sport but far and away the most important and the one with the broadest appeal was to support Ireland.”

“We worked with a great group of supporters with this in mind, including Vodafone who backed the Volunteer programme, keeping on message for them and us by backing the team behind the team.”

“Aon, EY, Aldi, Heineken and Land Rover all delivered good campaigns and made the event work better too.”

“Perhaps though an overlooked element, but one which we were very keen to deliver on, was the partnerships we had with Government and local authorities. We worked closely with Dublin and Belfast City Councils and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to create events and promotional opportunities that really expanded the scope of what we could aspire to.”

“Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland were fully on board and through Government, we were able to have Taoiseach Leo Varadkar welcome the captains to Government Buildings and President Michael D Higgins attend matches and become involved in a real meaningful way.

“This was sport, but it was more than sport at the same time and that was key to creating a lasting impression of a well-hosted event and a springboard for getting more players and supporters involved in Women’s Rugby.”

Failte Ireland, Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Vodafone and Heineken are among the more than 230 organisations that are part of the Sport for Business community

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