Rugby World Cup final watched by more than 6 million

More than 6 million UK viewers watched New Zealand's first Rugby World Cup final win for 24 years on Sunday morning, but it was not quite enough to give ITV1 its biggest audience of the tournament. New Zealand's nail-biting 8-7 win over France – well, it was if you are a Kiwi – had 4.2 million viewers, a 38.9% share, across more than three hours of coverage between 8.30am and 11.40am. Live coverage of the match itself, which kicked off at 9am, had 5.3 million viewers, peaking with 6.3 million viewers between 10.30am and 10.45pm, with a five-minute peak of 6.6 million. The final narrowly failed to top ITV1's previous biggest audience in the tournament, the average of 4.3 million viewers (and five-minute peak of 6.85 million) who watched Wales's agonising semi-final defeat by France on 15 October . But it equalled the 4.2 million average who saw England's disappointing quarter-final defeat – also to France – on 8 October. Wales were back in action for the "bronze final" – aka the third place play off – on Friday, watched by 1.5 million viewers (25%) between 8.15am and 10.30am. Live coverage of the match itself – Wales were beaten by Australia but, who cares, it's a third place play-off – averaged 1.6 million viewers with a 15-minute peak of 1.8 million. All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .