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The remarkable average attendance at Maro Itoje's last 7 games
By Ian Cameron
Maro Itoje is a player who can boast some remarkable stats.
Indeed the Saracens secondrow’s first season in the Premiership was one littered with landmark stats, most relating to the number of games he went as a professional without losing.
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His early stats for England were equally impressive, albeit under the reign of then infallible Eddie Jones.
Despite falling to defeat against Leinster in the Dublin this afternoon, the game brought Maro Itoje to a remarkable run of seven matches – but this time it was the match attendances that were remarkable.
A capacity 51,000 people watched the lock during Saracens putting in a fine performance in the European Champions Cup quarter-final, billed by some as the match that might very well hail this year’s champions.
Yet it was the smallest attendance of Itoje’s last seven games.
A week before he played Harlequins in front of 55,329 at the London Stadium, just a week on from the final of round of the Six Nations in Twickenham which played out in front of 82,060 on Saint Patrick’s Day.
In Round 4 he played France at the Stade de France before 78,060 and in Round 3 67,144 saw him lose to Scotland at Murrayfield.
In Round 2 in Twickenham 82,000 saw England triumph over Wales and a week earlier England opened their tournament with an away victory in front of Italy in front 61,464.
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That’s a total attendance of 477,057 for an average attendance of 68,151.
To put that in context, the average attendance over the course of Manchester United’s 31 Premiership matches so far this season is 56.731.
Itoje’s average attendance would place him about 13th if he was an NFL franchise.
Okay, in the grand scheme of things maybe not the most important stat ever calculated but impressive none-the-less. Oh, and if you’re wondering, neither Mako Vunipola nor Owen Farrell started against Harlequins at the London Stadium stadium last week.
