The Rugby Broadcast Report Issue 11: Rugby TV Guide 11-13 July
Never miss a game
Before diving into this week’s newsletter, I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone for being here. Over the past week this Substack surpassed 150 subscribers and I now have over 5,000 followers across Substack, Bluesky and Twitter – it means a lot and I’m very grateful.
Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales are all in action this weekend. After an impressive win against Georgia last week, Paul O’Connell’s Irish side face Portugal in Lisbon. Before that, Scotland take on Fiji in the early hours of Saturday morning, followed by Japan taking on a Welsh side that will be desperate for a win.
The Lions tour continues on Saturday as Andy Farrell’s men take on a select Australian & New Zealand XV side.
After last week’s impressive win over the Pumas, England take on Argentina in San Juan on Saturday night.
Fabien Galthié’s French side play the All Blacks in the early hours of Saturday morning.
In addition to U20s women’s action and a number of exciting international friendlies, there is Africa Rugby Cup action on Sunday with teams battling it out for Rugby World Cup 2027 qualification.
Irish and UK kick-off times and broadcast details for all games are listed below.
Fixture of the weekend (admittedly biased)
International: All Blacks v France
Kick-off: Saturday, 8:05am IST & BST / 7:05pm local time
TV: Sky Sports ME & Action / NOW
Venue: Wellington Regional Stadium
Ref: Christophe Ridley (RFU)
TMO: Brett Cronan (RA)
ARs: Nic Berry (RA), Takehito Namekawa (JRFU)
Fabien Galthié has made 10 changes to the French side that almost caused a major upset against the All Blacks last week. After an impressive Top 14 season for Toulouse, Joshua Brennan, who is the son of former Irish international Trevor, is being handed his test debut in a starting pack that retains only one starter from last week – Gaetan Barlot.
All Black Caleb Clarke has been forced to pull out and is replaced by Emoni Narawa for the All Blacks, who are already without the services of Sevu Reece due to the head injury he picked up last weekend.
The All Blacks starting team on Saturday contains 708 Tests caps, while in stark contrast the French starting XV has just 50 caps. An All Blacks win seems inevitable but it promises to be another cracking game.
All Blacks: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Emoni Narawa, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11
Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Christian Lio-Willie, 7 Ardie Savea (c), 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot. Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Ollie Norris, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Samipeni Finau, 20 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Timoci Tavatavanawai, 23 Damian McKenzie
France: 15 Léo Barré, 14 Théo Attissogbe, 13 Nicolas Depoortère, 12 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 11 Émilien Gailleton, 10 Joris Segonds, 9 Nolann Le Garrec, 8 Esteban Abadie, 7 Jacobus Van Tonder, 6 Pierre Bochaton, 5 Matthias Halagahu, 4 Joshua Brennan, 3 Georges-Henri Colombe, 2 Gaëtan Barlot (c), 1 Baptiste Erdocio. Replacements: 16 Pierre Bourgarit, 17 Paul Mallez, 18 Régis Montagne, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Cameron Woki, 21 Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 22 Thibault Daubagna, 23 Antoine Hastoy
Verdict: All Blacks
Quote of the week
If the cost is being perceived as expensive, that often just means that people aren’t actually seeing that they’re getting value from the service… so how do you handle that?… give them more value for money… give them additional features and functionality.
In an interview with SportsPro, Paul Donovan of MediaKind, which is a global video-technology company, discussed various approaches that broadcasters can take to reduce piracy. Paul highlighted that one way to do so is to add more value for customers and gave an example of a broadcaster he was working with recently that saw a considerable drop in churn after multiview was launched. Other examples include reducing latency and ensuring that highlights and replays are immediately available.
How to watch every Ireland, England, Scotland & Wales fixture this summer
After some last-minute announcements this week, all broadcasters for the upcoming summer tours have now been confirmed.
Rugby media rights news
The SRU has formally confirmed that Scotland's remaining summer fixtures will be shown on Premier Sports in the UK and Ireland. BBC Scotland will also provide free-to-air coverage of Samoa v Scotland alongside Premier Sports on 18 July. This means we now have confirmation of broadcasters for every Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland fixture this summer– check out the article above for full details.
The URC and RTE will no longer be working together to provide URC TV from next season. In an email to URC TV customers it was confirmed that the URC will take full control of the platform. It was also revealed that a smart TV app and multi-view functionality will be available next season. Unlike previous seasons, URC TV customers in the Republic of Ireland will have access to live coverage of 7 of the 8 games per round, with Premier Sports having exclusivity for one game per round. Thanks to the Harpin’ On Rugby newsletter (which I highly recommend) for providing a link to the URC statement.
The 2025-2026 Champ fixtures were released this week and it was confirmed that at least one game per round will be broadcast on YouTube.
The 2024 Autumn Nations Series, which will be known as the Quilter Nations Series this year, was viewed by over 58 million fans, this figure includes 14 million viewers who watched the Series on TNT Sports in Ireland and the UK.
More praise for ROG and Biggar
Ronan O’Gara and Dan Biggar’s comms have been a standout feature of Sky’s coverage of the Lions tour. The interview with Finn Russell below was held after the Lions’ victory over the Brumbies and is well worth a watch.
TV Guide July 11-13
Friday 11 July
1:00pm – Italy U20 Women v England U20 Women (U20s Women’s Summer Series) – YouTube
3:30pm – Ireland U20 Women v France U20 Women (U20s Women’s Summer Series) – YouTube
6:00pm – Scotland U20 Women v Wales U20 Women (U20s Women’s Summer Series) – YouTube
Saturday 12 July
4:00am – Fiji v Scotland (International) – Premier Sports 2 / Premier Sports 2 / NOW
6:50am – Japan v Wales (International) – S4C / BBC iPlayer / Unavailable live in ROI
8:05am – New Zealand v France (International) – Sky Sports Main Event & Action / NOW
11:00am – Australia & New Zealand XV v British & Irish Lions (British & Irish Lions Tour) – Sky Sports Main Event & Action / NOW
12:30pm – South Africa Women v Canada Women (International) – RugbyPass TV
4:10pm – South Africa v Italy (International) – Sky Sports Action / NOW
7:00pm – Portugal v Ireland (International) – Virgin Media One & Player / RugbyPass TV
7:00pm – Uruguay v Romania (International) – RugbyPass TV
8:40pm – Argentina v England (International) – Sky Sports Main Event & Action / NOW
Sunday 13 July
12:00am – Canada v Belgium (International) – RugbyPass TV
12:30am – USA v Spain (International) – RugbyPass TV
8:00am – Senegal v Cote D’Ivoire (Rugby Africa Cup) – RugbyPass TV / YouTube
10:00am – Morocco v Uganda (Rugby Africa Cup) – RugbyPass TV / YouTube
12:00pm – Namibia v Algeria (Rugby Africa Cup) – RugbyPass TV / YouTube
2:00pm – Zimbabwe v Kenya (Rugby Africa Cup) – RugbyPass TV / YouTube
Useful links (all free)
YouTube (U20s Women’s Summer Series)
YouTube (Rugby Africa Cup)