Irish the brainiest in Six Nations
Ireland came out tops, ahead of England and Italy, in a test covering five core areas of intelligence.
A sample of 100 Irish fans were given rugby-themed teasers on logic, verbal ability, general reasoning, visual-spatial ability and numbers.
The survey was carried out by Bath University for bookie firm Betfair, which has pioneered exchange betting.
Betfair spokesperson Hugh Taggart said he commissioned the survey to settle the traditional argument of which Six Nations country was the cleverest.
He said: "The tournament always sparks some friendly banter about who is the best nation so we thought that an intelligence test with a rugby theme would be the most appropriate way to compare the mental capabilities of each of the six nations."
Survey supervisor Dr Ian Walker commented: "Full marks to the Irish but who'd have thought that the French a nation which has produced so many great philosophers would score so badly in the logic problems?"
"Overall there is no such thing as a generally "clever" nation as each clearly has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each nation is good at some things thing but poor at others." The Irish had the best logical capabilities (averaging 83%) as well as the best overall average of 79%.
The English topped the table in one category and averaged an impressive 80% in the visual-spatial ability section.
Wales failed to finish first in any of the areas tested and were rooted to the bottom in verbal ability with only a 55% average.
Another shock result was the performance of the French, who were left at the bottom of the table.
France, the country of mathematician and philosopher Pascal, averaged the lowest score (46%) in the numbers section by some margin.
Despite finishing last in three out of the five sections in the test, the French did manage to save some face with an average score of 83% in the general reasoning section.
Scotland finished fifth in the table proving poor at the general reasoning questions.
