How to watch Rugby this week/weekend
Last month saw the start of the European Champions and Challenge Cups, and just like last year, FLO Rugby will be showing them along with Premier Sports Asia. Both FLO and Premier don’t require a VPN to watch, so they are both solid viewing choices.
With the first two Rounds of the Champions and Challenge Cup done and dusted, URC, Top14, and English Premiership all continue with business as usual this weekend.
As you may recall, if you’ve used this page in the past to watch rugby here in Canada, we used to include all the intricacies and step-by-step procedures for signing up for the different services. We still do, but based on feedback from the majority of users who have successfully set up the various services, we’ve moved the details on the exact mechanics for each service to the bottom of the page. A recent issue occurred regarding Premier Sports Asia. People said they couldn’t sign up and kept getting an error code. That is correct: you need to be connected through a VPN linked to an Asian server like Hong Kong to sign up, but once you have an account, you can watch and sign in and out without a VPN, which makes it super handy for casting to a TV. Some people have said it won’t let them use a credit card with a Canadian billing address, but we can’t really vouch for that, as we have had no problem doing so. So, in short, if you want to know how to do it, make sure you scroll all the way down to the bottom regarding the providers. If you do and still have trouble, we’re happy to see if we can’t help walk you through the process. We get no cut from any of the providers and can only tell you what has and hasn’t worked for us, in our fairly exhaustive efforts to overcome the challenges of watching rugby in this country.
Note: Some people using Stan have had difficulties with VPNs. If you do, clear your browsing data after logging out of Stan. Then log back into your Stan account without connecting a VPN. Once logged in, connect to a different Australian server than the one you were using before (ie, if you were using a Melbourne server, switch to a Brisbane server), then go to the Rugby section and pick the game you want.
European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup
The tournament now takes a break till early January for the Final two Rounds of the Pool stages. While the format until the knockouts is still far from ideal, there still have been and should continue to be some big games to keep us entertained in January, especially with team selection for the Six Nations just around the corner.
United Rugby Championship
The annual club competition featuring club sides from Ireland, South Africa, Wales, Italy, and Scotland resumes once more and while the Christmas season tends to feature mainly local derbies there is still plenty to keep you entertained. This weekend’s action all kicks off on Thursday seeing local derbies in Wales. Friday sees an intriguing Irish derby as Ulster host Munster, with the Men from Northern Ireland definitely on fire this season. Then on Saturday morning our pick is a South African classic as the Stormers host the Bulls in the Mother City. Finally on Saturday afternoon two sides with a point to prove lend an international flavour to this weekend’s proceedings as Edinburgh travel to Northern Italy to take on Benetton.
Dragons vs Scarlets – Thursday, January 1st – 10:00 AM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Ospreys vs Cardiff – Thursday, January 1st – 12:30 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Ulster vs Munster – Friday, January 2nd – 12:45 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Sharks vs Lions – Saturday, January 3rd – 8:30 AM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Stormers vs Bulls – Saturday, January 3rd – 11:00 AM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Benetton vs Edinburgh – Saturday, January 3rd – 12:30 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Leinster vs Connacht – Saturday, January 3rd – 12:30 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Glasgow vs Zebre Parma – Saturday, January 3rd – 2:45 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Canadian Rugby
Canada played Romania, Georgia and Portugal in Europe this November. All games were shown on TSN+. Canada couldn’t record a win but there were some definite positives to be found in Canada’s performance compared to recent years.
With no teams from North of the 49th Parallel represented in this year’s MLR, we are a bit short on opportunities to catch Canadian players in action apart from our stellar Womens’ team. However, a big shout out to Brian Barber on the West Coast for this gem of information regarding the ability to watch BC rugby.
Visit BC Rugby News for local and national news, plus access to recorded full matches with a $20/yr subscription.
Major League Rugby
With no Canadian teams in the league this year, it was an All American affair and therefore of rather diminished interest to us here in Canada. However, a lot of Canadian players are playing in the league so it was definitely worth a look. The action kicked off on February 15th and you’re be able to catch all the games live and on demand for free on the Rugby Network.
YouTube wrapup for the Week and General Internet Listings for following International Rugby
Our YouTube favorite is Squidge Rugby. He and his brother’s highly entertaining and insightful videos on our glorious sport have been The Lineout’s number one YouTube go-to for quite some time now. The videos are well put together, and the analysis is absolutely top drawer. They have some fascinating insights into the topic being discussed and have a production value that is both highly amusing and ingenious. Well worth your time and more than likely to put a smile on your face over a cup of coffee and provide some talking points with your rugby mates. Here’s his look at the World Cup draw along with his classic compendium of the best moments of 2025 and his always illuminating Teams of the Year by Position.
Here’s the link to his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2oaGQ6Dds6g9lqfexUFbQ
For a contrasting opinion from New Zealand and our other fan favorite, we also really like Two Cents Rugby on YouTube. Mark is an enthusiastic Kiwi fan who knows his players and the game and probably has the most extensive rugby jersey collection on the net. Along with the mighty Squidge, his opinions are so respected that both are now regular contributors to Planet Rugby. As mentioned above, his father, the legendary Gazza, has not been well, and it is with a very heavy heart that we announce that he has passed away. As a tribute to Gazza, let’s all fulfill his wishes and get Mark’s subscriber count to 100,000+ if you’re not a subscriber already.
Here are his views on Round 2 of European Action last weekend and the World Cup draw along with a look at the depth of some of the big squads.
And here’s the link to his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TwoCentsRugby/videos
In our opinion, we enjoy Eggchasers the most as an objective English perspective on the global game. As with all of these outstanding YouTubers, get behind his work and support his solid content. Here’s his views on the World Cup draw, and although we don’t cover the English Premiership for those of you who do you’ll probably appreciate his wrap up of it along with URC action and views on the game in general and back by popular demand Tim having far too good a time in Durban.
And from South Africa here’s the superb and always short but to the point Riaan Louw. Get behind his work and enjoy this latest addition to our roundup of contrasting views from around the globe. He reviewed the new Chasing the Sun documentary which profiles the Springboks successful 2023 World Cup campaign, which we are now able to watch here in Canada and Series 1 which profiled South Africa’s 2019 World Cup win, is also available in this country on Rugby Pass TV which is free, so go catch it see link below. He has been rather quiet of late but we’re hoping to see him back in business again early in the New Year:
Talking of Chasing the Sun Season 1 and 2 which chronicled South Africa’s 2019 and 2023 World Cup triumphs you can catch them for free on Rugby Pass TV see link below, though apparently now they only seem to have the trailers recently so not sure if it is still going to be available – will keep you posted. Just sign up for a free account. You can also catch Season 1 in a rather convoluted way in its entireity on YouTube, just search for Chasing the Sun and it’s about an 18 video playlist.
https://rugbypass.tv/section/Springboks
In a similar vein is the All Blacks story of their journey to and through the 2023 Rugby World Cup, All Blacks In Their Own Words 2, which is free and on YouTube see below as well as the New Zealand Rugby+ website as well as Together We Walk an 11 episode series on the All Blacks’ life under new Coach Scott Robertson:
https://www.allblacks.com/nzrplus/media
Our favorite site is Rugby Pass who some of you may remember used to broadcast huge amounts of Rugby out of Hong Kong and was a lifeline for many of us with a VPN in the days when accessing international rugby in this country was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Although they are no longer in the broadcasting business their site hosts a huge amount of rugby content and articles on the various aspects of the modern international game. There are documentary videos and weekly specials as well as a ton of in depth rugby journalism and like Ultimate Rugby if you like your stats it’s a good place to go. What we also appreciate is the fact that it’s a great place to go for news on the Women’s side of the game which sadly gets neglected by a lot of other rugby media. It’s free for the most part but for a $10 CDN annual fee you get additional access to some premium video content and articles. It’s well worth a visit:
One of the most comprehensive site for International Rugby news is without doubt Planet Rugby although we’ve felt that they seem to be going down the path of quantity rather than quality in terms of their journalism recently and also as far as they are concerned they Women’s side of the game doesn’t seem to exist, but it’s still a useful clearing house of rugby news, see link below:
For following the games if you can’t watch them either on the Internet or Television then they always have a very useful live tracking feature for all the big games, both for the Six Nations and Super Rugby as well as the World Cup. This allows you to get minute by minute updates on the games as they progress on either your computer or smart phone. If you’re on the road, this is a fabulous tool and best of all it’s free, along with their excellent coverage of the world game, and discussion forums (but be prepared to be shot down in flames by some of the more die hard fans if they feel your opinions aren’t well founded). If you’re a rugby fanatic then it’s pretty easy to lose time on this website and well worth a weekly or daily visit.
Another source of excellent international rugby coverage especially for video is Ultimate Rugby. Its video coverage features highlights, interviews and other interesting tidbits of rugby trivia and is a great place to go if you love your stats. Nicely produced and well worth spending some time at. It also has a live match tracker like Planet Rugby and one which you can actually post comments on as the action unfolds which is a nice feature.
There is a series on Amazon Prime documenting the All Blacks 2017 season “All or Nothing” which had plenty of ups and downs similar to the roller coaster ride the team is on at the moment. There are a lot of fascinating parallels with last year, and an insight on some of the personalities involved so is well worth a watch – see link below for a description and if you’re a Prime member well worth a watch:
https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0PYZDJFM7UAHE0SMHZXPPIW9YF/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
As always thanks to everyone for checking in, and getting our visitors over the 100,000 mark, including 800+ regular followers.
Take care everyone and stay safe and if you every want to show friends new to the sport what it means to the players involved and the spirit of the sport here’s two little gems from Tim at Eggchasers.
Providers that work in Canada for showing Rugby, Who Shows What and how to Access it
Here’s a quick summary of who shows what in Canada.
Premier Sports Asia (VPN to an Asian server required seemingly only when you sign up thereafter you can cast to a TV from your device without a VPN): URC, (Investec formerly Heineken) Champions Cup, Six Nations, Super Rugby Pacific, Rugby Championship, Premiership Rugby and the Lions Tour to Australia. It does require a VPN and connection to an Asian server when you sign up, but once done you seem to be able to watch without a VPN. It can be paid for with a Canadian credit card, worth a try especially as they now don’t seem to require a VPN to watch as they do have pretty extensive coverage.
Flo Rugby (VPN to a US Server required for everything except Champions and Challenge Cup): URC, (Investec formerly Heineken) Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, TOP 14, Rugby Championship, Summer Internationals but unfortunately this year will not be showing the Autumn Internationals.
Sportsnet+ (No VPN required) – URC and Premiership Rugby
DAZN (No VPN required): Six Nations (Men and Women’s) and Autumn Internationals and this Summer’s Lions Tour to Australia.
Stan Sport (VPN to an Australian server required) – Premiership Rugby, Lions Tour, Super Rugby Pacific, Six Nations, The Rugby Championship, Summer and Fall Internationals – however, seems as of June this service is no longer accepting payments with a Canadian credit card for the Sports add on.
TSN+ (No VPN required) – They broadcast this year’s Super Rugby Pacific tournament and will be showing the Summer Tours in the Southern Hemisphere with the exception of the Lions Series along with the Rugby Championship starting in August. They will also broadcast the Pacific Nations Cup and Canada’s Women’s warmup games prior to the World Cup against South Africa and the USA, along with the Women’s World Cup itself starting at the end of August.
There’s also new service that shows pretty well every game, Club and International within a few hours of the live games finishing for free. It requires no fee, subscription or VPN. The quality of the feed in general is fairly good though we have had problems around the 20 minute mark into a broadcast in the past but fingers crossed it seems to be working a bit better this year. rugby24.net. However, it does seem prone to viruses and trojan horses and would appear to operate out of Russia so use with extreme caution.
Here’s what we know:
Lions Tour to Australia: DAZN is showing the whole tour here in Canada without the need for a VPN and live and on demand. Premier Sports Asia and Stan Sports Australia are your other go to fixes for this one live and on demand but both require use of a VPN.
Summer Tests and Tours: Premier Sports Asia always have the whole lot and along with Stan Sport and FLO Rugby US are solid options. TSN will have England, France and Italy’s tours to the Southern Hemisphere in July.
Autumn Internationals: Premier Sports Asia, Stan Sport and DAZN usually show all the internationals live and on demand. DAZN does not require a VPN but Premier and Stan do (though increasingly and of late permanently Premier no longer seems to need a VPN). All three platforms have the games live and on demand.
Premiership Rugby (England): Sportsnet+ ,Premier Sports Asia, Stan Sport Australia with the latter two often having the superior on demand coverage
United Rugby Championship (replaces the PRO14): Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby as well as some games free to air on a mix of BBC and RTE Ireland. There is also URC TV which works the same way as EPCR TV for the Heineken Cup but doesn’t show any of the knockout rounds but is pretty cheap at $52 Canadian a year and for the most part does not require a VPN. Sportsnet+ is also showing the URC but given its limited coverage, high price and spotty on demand availability we don’t recommend it.
Investec (formerly Heineken) Champions and Challenge Cup – Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand). There will also be some games available live and on demand on a mixture of the UK’s Channel 4, BBC, RTE Ireland and France 2.
Rugby Championship: Premier Sports Asia, Stan Sport and Flo Rugby with all 3 having the superior on demand coverage to TSN.
TOP 14 (France) – FLO Rugby with a VPN. There is also French service Canal+ which will be broadcasting it, but even with a VPN it seems impossible to pay without a French credit card. We’ll keep you posted.
Pacific Four Series – TSN and Rugby Pass TV live and on demand. Rugby Pass TV does require a free account but as long as you are connected to a VPN and a non Canadian/Australian/New Zealand or US server you can watch for free.
Pacific Nations Cup – TSN (terrestrial channels) and Stan Sport Australia live and on demand
Six Nations (Men and Women’s) – DAZN, Stan Sport and Premier Sports Asia (as well as free on BBC and ITV with a VPN). FLO Rugby also has it but games are only available on demand a week after they have been played so not really much use. FLO Rugby has only the Women’s Six Nations and requires a VPN.
Super Rugby Pacific – TSN+ (with probably limited on demand games and being only web based so good luck catching those 1 and 3 AM kickoff times), Premier Sports Asia, Stan Sport Australia and FLO Rugby with the latter two having the superior on demand coverage
Japan Rugby League One – Rugby Pass TV (so far doesn’t require a VPN)
Major League Rugby – The Rugby Network for live and on demand coverage
WXV – This is a new annual Womens’ tournament set up by World Rugby and played in October/November. Canada will feature in the Top Tier and as a result TSN and Stan Sport will be broadcasting all the Tier 1 games with Stan also having the Tier 2 and 3 action. Rugby Pass TV for the other Tiers in the competition which is a free service .
As things change we’ll keep you updated particularly if there are cheaper options. As several of you have pointed out, for some of the club competitions such as the URC and Heineken Cup, you can often get games on YouTube free sometimes only a few hours after the games have been played live, but scouring the net can often give the score away if you’re not careful and if that’s an important criteria for your rugby viewing enjoyment then be warned – but it’s still an option if you’re reluctant to shell out.
Providers that work in Canada
Like we say, Premier Sports Asia has long been our preferred viewing source, and although it does require accessing it through a VPN and a Hong Kong/Singapore server to view quite a few people including ourselves have now been able to watch it without a VPN once more . At $35 Canadian a month it was a good deal and got you everything barring the TOP 14 in France. However, Six Nations (Men and Womens’), U20s Six Nations, English Premiership, URC, Summer Tours, Super Rugby Pacifica, Rugby Championship, Heineken (Champions) Cup and Autumn Internationals are all there so it’s definitely worth it. The annual plan was a pretty good deal at $169 USD (approximately $215 CDN). You now need a VPN to access it in order to sign upand as always we use Express VPN and a Hong Kong server with no problems. Follow the link down below and once on the web page go to where it says continue to main site. Do not try and download the Apps as these don’t work in Canada, but streaming from the website whether on iPad, laptop or phone (Android and iPhone) works just fine. You still have to list your country as one of the ones listed in the drop down menu when you sign up as Canada is not listed – we normally use Hong Kong or Singapore, but you can pay with a Canadian credit card. Some people have tried to download the app, but be advised you CANNOT access its content through any of the apps either for Apple or Google Play you can ONLY access the content through the website below. Here is the link to the main website:
https://www.premiersportsasia.com/
Our new go to is US based service Flo Rugby which has a growing body of competitions it now covers and a solid live and on demand service. It has much of the same content with the exception of the Six Nations, Autumn Internationals and Premiership, as Premier Sports Asia but is a wee bit more expensive at almost $50 CDN monthly but quite reasonable at $200 CDN a year, however despite their customer service team saying you don’t need a VPN connected to a US server, we have been unable to do so without, but like Premier its on demand service is generally very good and also their feed quality is slightly higher at times than Premier’s. An interesting note is you can take out a subscription to FLO Rugby in Canada and when you log into your account you can watch the Champions and Challenge Cup games without a VPN but if you try to watch any of the other games on the site like TOP 14, Super Rugby or the URC you will need to be connected to a VPN linked to a US server. It’s an increasingly solid service and although not quite having as much content as Premier it’s becoming an increasingly solid choice. As in the Note at the start of this section the service sometimes has real issues with Chrome and is currently having problems at the moment. However fear not it works fine with Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox and Safari(for Mac/Ipad Users).
https://www.florugby.com/signup?go=%2F
Our other new option in this country was Stan Sport Australia. However, accessing it required a VPN connected to an Australia server. Important note just in, you can only access it via the website on a computer or an Ipad and just recently it seems you can no longer pay for it using a Canadian credit card so it would seem until further notice this is no longer an option so beware even connected through a VPN to an Australian server. If you try and access it through the website on either your phone even with a VPN it will require you to download the app on your phone which even with a VPN will not work, so it’s computer/iPad or nothing. However, it is pretty straightforward and you can just connect your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable. It did cost approximately $21 CDN a month. You have to take out a subscription to Stan Basic first at $10 AUD a month and then add Stan Sport to it at $15 AUD a month. The whole package was $25 AUD a month which worked out at approximately $21 CDN. They cover Super Rugby Pacific and the Six Nations and when they resume the Summer and Fall Tours as well as obviously this summer’s Lions Tour to Australia. Its an excellent quality feed and has superb live and on demand coverage, and we’ll keep you update if the access situation changes. We think it may have something to do with the exclusivity of the Lions Tour and is a one off but will let you know.
You will need an Australian postal code in order to use it, but that is not a problem, we just chose a random caravan park in Australia and used it as our address and were able to access its content no problem and pay with a Canadian credit card. Just remember you have to be connected to an Australian server through a VPN when trying to access the site’s content. Important note though is that unlike many overseas sites, interestingly you have to log into/create your Stan account without being connected to an Australian server on a VPN, but once logged in you will have to then connect to an Australian server with a VPN to watch any of the content. Also because we have only managed to make it work through the website on a computer, you’ll need to connect your laptop to your TV via an HDMI cable unless you can also connect your Chromecast to the same Australian server.
TSN+ had Super Rugby Pacific again this year and only costs $8 a month and gives you full live and on demand access, useful if you forget to set that PVR. Also their on demand coverage can sometimes be a bit hit and miss, but unlike Stan Sport, FLO Rugby and Premier Sports Asia and others you don’t need a VPN which makes it much easier to watch on your TV if you want to cast. Our biggest problem with TSN is they invariably leave us in suspense about what they’ll be showing until literally hours before kickoff or in the case of last weekend completely miss a round of competition. In short they are just not a very reliable rugby broadcaster coupled to the fact they only have a limited amount of content. They are also showing the WXV Top Tier which is the annual global women’s competition. Here is their Super Rugby Pacific and International Rugby Broadcast Schedule. They will also be showing Canada’s Men and their two games in July against Spain and Belgium as well as the Women’s World Cup in August. Many of these will also be broadcast on TSN’s TV channels meaning that you’ll have to take out an additional subscription over and above TSN+ (frustrated yet!!!???)
Sportsnet+ has the URC and English Premiership but it’s expensive at $35 a month or $250 a year CDN especially given the fact they only cover two competitions but their live and on demand coverage is fairly good. Here is the link to subscribe:
https://secure.sportsnetplus.ca/pricing
DAZN has an occasional foray into the rugby broadcast landscape in Canada. They will show all the Autumn Nations series. They also will broadcast the Six Nations (Men and Women’s) this year as well as the Under 20s Six Nations. DAZN is $30 CDN a month. There is no buildup with DAZN but halftime is no longer simply an endless rotation of NFL scores and statistics, as they at least show highlights of the first half. They usually don’t announce any of their rugby listings until literally days before kick off for some strange reason though that has been markedly better this fall. (Not very good marketing if you ask us but then TSN is no better)
https://www.dazn.com/en-CA/sport/Sport:59zkrmozaazlyumpmqw5hpdp7
For those interested in the English Premiership along with MLR you can catch all the games free live and on demand on the Rugby Network based out of the US. You will need to be connected to a US server to watch the Premiership games though.
https://www.therugbynetwork.com/
For those interested in Japan Rugby League One, the top domestic competition in Japan featuring a lot of big name Internationals, you can catch that action for free on Rugby Pass TV. It requires you sign up for an account, but it’s free. They will also be showing all of the Vancouver Sevens.
Talking of free, as mentioned above, rugby24.net, shows pretty well every competition Club and International on demand several hours after the games have finished for free and with no need for a VPN. However, it does appear to be a Russian or East European site and your antivirus may get excited about it and we’ve heard rumours of viruses and trojan horses associated with it, as we’ve had malware popups come up on our antivirus systems when using it. In short, use with extreme caution, but it is free and is pretty extensive in its coverage but bear in mind there is no live coverage and the time between a game finishing and it being available on this site can take anywhere from 5 to 24 hours, and for some of us that’s just too long to avoid spoiler alerts from friends or other media sources. Like we say use at your own risk!
Also for the lower level Tiers of the WXV you can catch that on Rugby Pass TV which is also free and has some other interesting rugby content.
As always a big shout out to Brian Barber in Victoria who continues to excel at digging up some of these viewing sources.
We did add a Podcast to our repertoire. It is available on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify among others. However, we did struggle to keep it regular and with the demands of trying to get a regular blog out, which seems to get far more attention from people, we’ve put the Podcast on hold indefinitely as the relatively low interest compared to the blog doesn’t justify the effort.
We often compete in SuperBru Pools just for fun. For those of you not familiar with it – it’s just a fun predictor game, there is no betting or financial transactions involved, and it’s a free service. All you have to do is set up a profile, join in the fun and see how your rugby knowledge matches up to predicting accurate results. If you watch Two Cents Rugby you’ll know he’s a big fan of the service and pretty good at it from what we can gather.
The Lineout 