Online Patriots - A look at the 2011 Tri-Nations competition

This year’s Tri-Nations tournament has not been the most exciting as it stands in the shadows of the ultimate rugby showdown... Rugby World Cup 2011 (#RWC2011). Please note that had South Africa actually won the tournament, my stance might have been slightly different.

Nonetheless, well done to Australia for an exhilarating final. The style of rugby they’re playing is very exciting, but as many experts are saying, it's quite likely not the type of rugby that that is going to win the coveted William Webb Ellis trophy. This remains to be seen of course as I distinctly remember a few years ago when everyone was under the impression that running rugby isn’t quite test match rugby and yet nowadays we’re seeing more and more of it in the international arena.

One thing that champagne rugby does provide is a lot of online conversation. This was the first year that BrandsEye decided to monitor online conversation for each of the 3 participating teams and it's amazing to see how supportive the countries were of their teams.

Let's have a quick look at the teams' reputation over the course of the tournament:

1. Australia - The Wallabies

The Wallabies had the least amount of online support for the duration of the tournament. There were only 13 909 online mentions. Their conversation was "U" shaped, meaning they had the most conversation right at the start of the Tri-Nations when they beat South Africa, as well as at the end of the tournament when they beat the All Blacks at home to win their first Tri-Nations trophy in a decade. The country rejoiced along with the team as conversation sky-rocketed.

• Twitter conversation: 77%
• Sentiment: 90% positive conversation.

The verdict? Clearly underestimated at the start and then surged to victory at the end. The Australian public are not nearly patriotic enough and really only support their team when they play their home games! 

2. New Zealand - The All Blacks

The team to beat at every tournament (they must be so sick of hearing this), New Zealand probably entered the tournament as the favourite to take the title but their downfall clearly came at the business end of the tournament when they decided to rest some key players (an admitted mistake). The All Blacks generated 21 340 mentions during the tournament. Whether they won or lost online support remained consistent.

• Twitter conversation: 71%
• Sentiment: 85% positive conversation.

The verdict? Probably the most loyal support of all the teams. Their supporters love them whether they win or lose. I think many of them are doing it out of hopefulness and trust for what is to come. New Zealand as a nation will feel crushed if they lose this World Cup. One feels for them but I want the Springboks to crush them!

3. South Africa - The Springboks

If we had to go by sheer volume alone then South Africa would have won the competition hands down. Sadly if we look at the quality of the content we will notice how fickle the South African public seems to be. Our first, and only victory, of the tournament saw us generating over 12 000 mentions! That's just under half of the overall tournament volume of 26 076.

• Twitter conversation: 71%
• Sentiment: 92% positive conversation (note this is quite distorted due to the overwhelming positivity of our only victory)

The verdict? Consistency. On and off the field. It is evident that the Springboks wrote this tournament off as a loss before it started so there were no surprises when we were humiliated on the away leg. What might have been more encouraging was if we saw some support regardless of the losses, as opposed to the "what were they thinking" and "this better work" attitudes which a lot of the online audience seem to have had.

Overall the Tri-Nations was a decent measure of what rugby supporters show towards their national teams. Well done to the Aussies for waltzing their way to victory (and making Graham Henry eat his words in the process). This might be the final instalment of the Tri-Nations as we know it as we prepare for the Pumas who will be joining us soon (good luck to them - let's hope they don't become the "whipping boys" of the southern hemisphere).

Online conversation is showing us quite a unique indicator of patriotism and it seems that there is much value for teams, unions and players to have an online reputation strategy.

GH