So England won’t make it through to the knock-out stages of the Rugby World Cup, and the figure-pointing is in full swing. One of the first post-exit stories was the impact that the team's failure to escape from the 'pool of death' will have on both the atmosphere surrounding the tournament in England - and the effect that it will have on the country's economy.
The London Business School was out early with the nice round figure of a £3bn (€4.05bn) hit to England's coffers - this was based on a predicted dip in investor sentiment.
It argued that analysis of previous host-nation exits suggested that we could expect a next-day decline of 0.15% on the host-nation's stock market - in England's case this would be worth £3bn.
So far the FTSE is looking pretty happy - up 131 points or 1.9% - maybe it would have been even higher if Lancaster and Co. could have done a number on the Wallabies...
Beyond investor sentiment, there are more solid ways that the team's loss will hit the English economy.
It is estimated that each England RWC game is worth £5m extra to the country's pubs.
The British Beer and Pub Association says that it still expects that 25 million extra pints will be sold during the tournament, as visiting fans keep the party alive.
Ciaran Medlar, is head of sports tax services with BDO in Dublin joined Vincent Wall on Breakfast Business this morning to discuss the economic impact of Saturday night's result.
While almost all of the match tickets have already been sold, he remarks that the big loss will be with "the non-committed rugby supporter" who is unlikely to venture to a pub - or even to tune in to the knockout games without England.
The audience for Saturday night's match peaked at 11.1 million - a figure that is unlikely to be matched by the eventual World Cup Final.
ITV paid £60m for the exclusive broadcasting rights for the tournament in the UK - it is expected to suffer advertising revenue hits of £1m per-game as it loses out on bonuses tied to English progression or target audience figures.
Ticket-touts were also big losers on Saturday night. The head of the secondary-selling company, Viagogo said that there had been a "crash" in the market. The resale prices for tickets to knockout games have tumbled.
Economist David McWilliams joined Off the Ball yesterday to review the Sunday sport pages, he said that he thinks that £3bn is a realistic figure to put on the economic impact of the English loss.
Rather than focusing on investor sentiment - he looked towards behavioural economics and the less tangible hit that consumer sentiment will take as rugby fans feel the disappointment of losing.
The lack of an English run for the title means that the competition will fail to draw-in the broader-public who don't normally follow rugby - meaning that there'll be no 'feel good factor' hitting the nation.
The RFU will also lose-out on sponsorship money tied to the team's progression - but the way that the tournament's finances are structured mean that it will still enjoy a windfall from the World Cup.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
