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Published 13:14 13 Jan 2017 GMT
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Two weeks after Joe Schmidt's men beat the All Blacks in Chicago, the sport hit peak interest in the country for the calendar year with a record number of viewers watching the return game at the Aviva which the visitors won 21-9.
By contrast, almost 1.3million people watched Ireland v France in the second round of Euro 2016.
And that's just in the Republic.
There were two other rugby matches to feature in the top 20 - Ireland v France and Ireland v England in the Six Nations - but none of them hit the numbers that even Portugal v Wales did in the European Championships.
The Euro 2016 final was also ahead in the list, with almost 783,000 people watching Portugal beat France in Paris.
Nine sporting occasions made up the top 10 with only The Late Late Toy Show joining them - at the top of the list albeit.
Rugby was none of those nine.
Sporting events that trumped rugby on TV in 2016
The Six Nations will be hoping to topple Room To Improve off its perch in 2017.
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