It was a World Cup group stages of highs and lows for Ireland but there is no doubt the team attracted plenty of attention, reflected in the Twitter activity around certain players.
Analysis by data consultancy firm Kantar shows that the most discussed Irish player since the tournament began was Rory Best with 6,280 tweets. Cian Healy is closest with 4, 375.
Not many prop forwards who can do that...@IrishRugby's Cian Healy gets loose ahead of their first #RWC2019 match against Scotland.
Find out where you can watch live at https://t.co/z0BgdPH0sf pic.twitter.com/gqLuZGknw6
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 22, 2019
Other Irish players who caused a stir were Bundee Aki (2, 440) CJ Stander (2, 349) and Tadhg Furlong (1,966).
Overall, there was 29, 908 tweets about Irish players alone. The interest in Joe Schmidt's team dwarfed that in the other Pool A sides. Japan were next with 11, 995 tweets with two players attracting the bulk of them; Michael Leitch (3,205) and Kotaro Matsushima (1,957). The now eliminated Scotland had a total of 11, 079.
