The TV stats that shame the Wallabies: More people tune into Women’s State of Origin match than win over Wales in sad reality for under-fire union team

The Wallabies heralded a new era under Joe Schmidt with victory on Saturday, but Australian sports fans still need to be convinced to support the team.

Television viewing figures announced by News Corp it turns out that 561,000 people tuned in to Channel 9 to watch the match for free on TV and streaming.

That’s about half the number of viewers who watched Queensland beat NSW in the deciding match of the women’s State of Origin series.

The number of viewers was also about 200,000 fewer than the 744,000 who watched the Broncos v Panthers match in the NRL on Friday night.

Channel 7 broadcast Essendon’s win over Collingwood, which also well exceeded the viewing figures for the Wallabies match.

There is one bright spot, however: the figures for the Wallabies v Wales match are up on the 520,000 viewers who watched last year’s Bledisloe Cup, marking a small improvement.

More wins will undoubtedly see more fans give the Wallabies a chance, and new captain Liam Wright was delighted with the 25-14 win.

“Yeah, a great result. We certainly weren’t perfect tonight but the determination we showed there… we’re really happy with that result,” skipper Wright said.

Far more people watched the women’s State of Origin deciding match than the victory over Wales

‘There has been a lot of talk about the World Cup… but it has not just been swept under the carpet.

‘We learned a lot. We showed a lot of bits and pieces of that game; areas that we could have capitalized on but didn’t, and areas that they capitalized on that we need to watch out for.

‘But the boys have really taken it upon themselves not to just hide and be shy about the facts, but to learn from them and develop themselves.

‘Not only as a player, but also as a person, because it was a challenging time.’