Rugby fans have been enjoying the World Cup via their mobile phones © Getty Images

Much of this excellent tournament has had a retro feel to it - the return to a country that co-hosted the inaugural World Cup in 1987, the same semi-finalists as 24 years ago and the price of beer (yeah right), but in one rather significant way the latest global gathering has a distinctly modern flavour.

Fans of digital media (and I'll take it you are one of these people as you happen to be reading this) have generated some thought-provoking stats for people like me who are intent on delivering you the ultimate rugby fix. 'Rugby World Cup 2011 a Mobile Digital Hit' proclaimed an official press release this week - not the most alluring of headlines I admit but stay with me.

What follows are some 'big' numbers which I assume are supposed to make an impact (Official RWC app downloaded 3m times, 17m video clips viewed on app) but I would argue that the most striking thing about the release follows later - 'usage on mobile devices outstrips usage of rugbyworldcup.com through a ‘traditional’ computer by a factor of three to one'.

That is pretty staggering to those working to provide the best online experience and underlines a growing inclination among fans to immerse themselves across multiple platforms and perhaps more interestingly, on the move.

The release continues, "The RWC 2011 official mobile application, available on BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, has been downloaded more than three million times and garnered more than 350 million page views, while videos, including match highlights, daily news and best moments from the previous week, have been viewed more than 17 million times through the official mobile app. More than five million video clips have been viewed on the official tournament website at rugbyworldcup.com with 120 million page impressions generated."

And if you need reminding of the power of social media there are some more stats to make you sit up and take notice but there is clearly room for growth in that area. The Rugby World Cup Facebook page (facebook.com/rugbyworldcup) now has more than 1.4 million fans, whilst more than 100,000 people are following the RWC Twitter feed. In addition, videos on RWC’s YouTube channel, at youtube.com/rugbyworldcup have been viewed more than 4 million times. Expect these numbers to be almost laughable come the next World Cup in England in 2015.

RWC officials are quite rightly proud of these figures and they deserve a fair amount of praise for serving fans so well on this front.

In other news, the Bronze Medal Final (what is that title all about?) will be played in Auckland on Friday night. Getting up for this game must be a tough task with your body and mind still aching from your World Cup exit the week before. But 54,000 tickets sold suggest the fans expect them to do so. Let's hope they are repaid for their faith.