The world has been glued to their screens for the last six weeks as the Rugby World Cup 2019 takes place in Japan. And after winning their match against Wales, the Springboks have shown that they have every chance of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy this coming Saturday.

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South Africa has shown its passion to back the Bokke in the build-up to the final. But there is more to this journey towards the match that has South Africans standing #StrongerTogether.

Meltwater, the global leader in media intelligence, recently tracked and analysed both news media and social media mentions around the Rugby World Cup, the sentiments around the victory that Captain Siya Kolisi has already experienced, and why South Africa has already won the Rugby World Cup 2019.

A nation that is #StrongerTogether

This month has been one where South Africans have been supporting their National Rugby Team – more affectionately known as the Springboks or “Bokke” – on social media more than ever before. “#StrongerTogether” is the team’s official hashtag and the #StrongerTogether campaign has been used to unite the country throughout the duration of the Rugby World Cup this year.

Globally, the #StrongerTogether hashtag was mentioned 3 640 times in the news and 213 000 times on social media, in the month of October only. In total that hashtag had a social reach of 5.33 million people.

Social media mentions that included the #StrongerTogether hashtag reached four peaks during the month of October – the peaks occurred on the days when the Springboks were playing Italy, Canada, Japan and Wales respectively.

While the #StrongerTogether hashtag has been used amongst many South Africans to show their support for the Bokke, Japan is the top country to also include the hashtag in their social media mentions. This could be attributed to the fact that the host country of this year’s Rugby World Cup is Japan – so the country has received an influx of fans and visitors. South Africa comes in second at 14.89 percent of global social media mentions that include #StrongerTogether, and 91.30 percent of social media mentions in Africa.

The main trending topics in relation to #StrongerTogether, include “WebbEllisCup,” which is the name of the trophy that the World Cup Winning Team will hold, “RWCFinal” which is taking place on Saturday, November 2 between South Africa and England, and “WALvRSA” the semi-final in which South Africa beat Wales to make it to the Final.

The recent Wales vs South Africa match is where South Africans began to envision the true possibility that we could be bringing the title back to home soil.

Japanese phrases also appeared as trending topics, with the data showing that these tweets were coming from the host nation.

*Submitted by Meltwater

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