Due to the split with most of the Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs, rugby union remained more popular in the South and the Midlands than the North of England, although this trend is now nowhere near as prevalent, with many teams in the North able to field four or five senior sides per week.

Although four of the teams in the Premiership have historic links with London, one of these has now moved to a neighbouring town and a second has moved to the more distant city of Coventry , and only Harlequins and Saracens now play in the capital, respectively in the outer suburbs of Twickenham and Hendon Saracens had also played in a neighbouring town before returning to London in early At an amateur level, however, rugby remains strong in the London area.

English rugby union receives extensive coverage from major media outlets. The percentage of people declaring to be interested in rugby union in England has been fairly constant over the period , for which we have data.

In this category, it places rugby union at the second place in England behind football. The viewing figures for the final of the Premiership indicate that 91, viewers watched the final on TV when it was broadcast on ESPN for the first time.

In , the final was watched by , viewers on Sky. In terms of average attendance, the Aviva Premiership is the third best attended club competition in England behind the top two association football leagues, the Premier League and The Championship.

The highest club attendances at Aviva Premiership matches are starting to become similar to some of the lower attended matches in football's Championship, with game attendances averaging 12, in compared with 17, in the football Championship.

Historically rugby union was a participatory sport rather than a spectator sport in England and attendances at club games were low.

Leicester Tigers for example averaged less than a hundred spectators in the s. However, attendances at Twickenham for the national team have always been very high.

Many people watch these games but don't follow club rugby, mainly due to the fact that the pay-TV Sky Sports owns the rights to the game broadcasts, and highlights are rarely shown on network television.

This is particularly true of the West Country, especially in Cornwall and in the cities of Bristol , Bath and Gloucester , where the game is more popular without significant class differentiation.

In the Midlands, the game competes with football and the larger clubs, such as Leicester Tigers , Northampton Saints and Coventry , have considerable fanbases and strong traditions.

The English national team is currently the second best team in the history of the Six Nations Championship with three titles and one Grand Slam.

They were World Champions from — and also made the finals of the and World Cups. World Rugby currently ranks England at 3rd out of 95 union-playing countries.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. See also: History of rugby union. Main article: Rugby Football Union. See also: English rugby union system.

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