Journalism students achieved more than half a million views of a live stream they set up to cover a rugby union tournament.

Students at the University of Northampton covered and commentated on the Rugby School under-18 International School sevens tournament – with viewers tuning in from as far afield as Bermuda, South Africa and the United States.

Four of the university’s multimedia journalism undergraduates – Ruaraidh Britton, Guy Frawley, Kirk Asiedu and Charlie Atkinson – covered more than 10 hours of action via a stream on Facebook Live.

In addition to match coverage during the tournament, which took place on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 March, the students also got to interview England rugby legends Martin Johnson and Jason Leonard.

The four journalism students who covered the tournament

Senior Lecturer Marc Webber said: “Our students were not only brilliant and really rose to the occasion, but also enjoyed an experience of live reporting that very few other journalism courses offer.

“To be able to commentate live on sport in the same facilities and environment that the professionals experience cannot be beaten and I would like to thank Rugby School for offering us the opportunity and their welcome.”

The experience was organised by the university’s journalism and media department, in partnership with the media team at Rugby School, where the sport was invented.