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Irish players fill seven places in the LEWIS PR Twitter First 15. The top rated English player is full back Ben Foden in fourth place with 67,000 followers. Jamie Roberts beats his captain Sam Warburton as the most followed Welsh player. Neither Scotland nor Italy can boast any players in the top 15 players. 

 

Former captain and British Lion Brian O'Driscoll was found to be Europe's most followed rugby player on Twitter. The player, who will miss this year's Six Nations Championship because of injury, has more than 135,000 followers. 

 

England players Danny Care and Mike Tindall both make the list. Care, who will miss the Six Nations after being disciplined following a drink driving ban, is in 10th place with Tindall, appearing 12th in the agency's social media league with more than 33,000 followers.

 

Jonny Wilkinson, Gavin Henson and new England rugby captain Chris Robshaw failed to make the list. Wilkinson, who has just retired from international rugby, has 23,000 followers,Henson, the former partner of Charlotte Church who's recently been recalled to the Wales squad, has fewer than 20,000 and Robshaw has less than 10,000.

 

'Following our recent research into the Premiership and the other main football leagues across Europe this shows us that rugby still has some way to go to catch up with football. But there is no doubt that Europe's top players are becoming more and more engaged with fans across social media,' said LEWIS PR's head of content Keith Beech.

 

'Social media has fundamentally reshaped the way people interact with the world around them and this is no more apparent than within the field of sport,' said Dean Russell the European Social Media Director at LEWIS. 'Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed a new generation of fans to connect with their sporting idols and our research shows that rugby is beginning to embrace this.'