Second round of Six Nations helps sell 25m pints

The second round of the Guinness Six Nations championship continued with wins for Ireland, Scotland and England, which resulted in another bumper weekend for pubs with 25m pints served – an uplift of 7% against the equivalent round two matches in 2022.

The rugby enticed 27% more consumers to visit the on-trade and, with back-to-back games on Saturday, it also encouraged people to stay at the pub for an additional 38 minutes, according to real-time market intelligence business Oxford Partnership.

Extra pints and revenue

This meant the average pub served an extra 141 pints over the weekend, driving an additional £572 revenue for sites.

Scottish fans again had much to celebrate as their side recorded back-to-back wins in the tournament for the first time in the Six Nations era as they saw off Wales 35-7, which saw an uplift of 210 pints per venue. England followed with 133 extra pints as they beat Italy 31-14 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Wales trailed with 92 additional pints.

Oxford Partnership chief executive Alison Jordan said: “Yet again, we see sport playing a really important role in helping to deliver much needed growth for the on trade.”

Upcoming fixtures

The next Six Nations action takes place on Saturday and Sunday 24-25 February. On Saturday, Italy will face table-topping Ireland in Rome at 2.15pm followed by England visit to Cardiff to face bottom-of-the-league Wales.

Sunday’s match at 3pm sees high-flying Scotland make the trip across to Paris to face France.

The final two rounds of matches are set to take place in March with round four on Saturday and Sunday 11-12 March seeing Italy v Wales and England v France on Saturday 11 March and current top two Scotland and Ireland playing on Sunday 12 March at Murrayfield.

The final round takes place on Saturday 18 March when all six nations play on the same day – Scotland v Italy at 12.30pm, France v Wales at 2.45pm and Ireland v England at 5pm.