Last Updated on May 27, 2023

Watching the Rugby World Cup on UK TV

Updated in 2023, obviously the 2019 Rugby World Cup has now finished but all the information about connecting is still valid for the next one – Rugby World Cup in France 2023.

For rugby fans, it’s time to start getting excited and planning ‘work from home days’ – yes, it’s almost time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.  This year’s tournament is coming from Japan where the sport is slowly growing in popularity. With home advantage and an ever-improving team, Japan the current Pacific Nation Cup champions are hoping to take the step into the knockout stages this time.

It looks like it could be one of the most open competitions for some time and anyone with any sort of rugby interest will be counting the days.  Of course, because it’s in Japan this will pose some logistical challenges for those in the Western hemisphere.   The matches have been scheduled to try and maximize the audience so there’s no starts in the middle of the night in Europe.

Where to Watch the Rugby World Cup 2019 Online on TV

You’ll find a complete fixture list at the bottom of this page, including the various starting times. Basically, from Western Europe, it’s going to be morning when most matches are scheduled including some very early starts! So for midweek matches it’s going to be work from home, day off or a sickie!

Fortunately, there’s loads of different places to watch the Rugby World Cup on the TV and online. In the United Kingdom for example it’s being broadcast on free to air channels mainly the largest commercial channel – ITV. Most of the major games will be broadcast live on ITV 1, some will be on ITV 4 and all of them will be available online on the streaming service ITV Hub. So you should be able to watch live or later in the day without needing any sort of subscription channel.

If you’re not in the UK then here’s a list of the main commercial broadcasters for the Rugby World Cup. This isn’t a definitive list though so please add any others in the comments that you may be aware of. I’m fairly certain that all these channels also broadcast online too, so you can learn how to watch Channel 4 in the US or stream any of the other UK channels too..

• Argentina: ESPN
• Australia: Fox Sports and Network 10
• France: TF1
• Ireland: RTÉ and Eir Sport
• Japan: Nippon TV, NHK and J Sports
• New Zealand: TVNZ and Spark
• South Africa: SuperSport
• United States: NBC Sports and Univision
• Uruguay: ESPN

How to Watch ITV Rugby World Cup Coverage from Outside the UK

So for all those Rugby fans in countries where there’s plenty of coverage then there’s no real problem. However, this won’t be the case for all of us and in many countries it’s difficult to find a place to watch the competition. You would think that all the internet streaming services would solve this, however most media companies restrict access based on your physical location. So for example you can technically only watch the ITV coverage when you’re physically located in the United Kingdom, the same with TF1 which is only available in France.

But don’t worry you can bypass these silly blocks and watch any online TV channel you like irrespective of your location.

Here’s how it’s done

By using a simple program called a VPN then you can hide your location before you connect to any of these web sites. So if you’re in Spain then connect to a UK based server before you start to browse then all the UK TV channels will work online. You can watch the BBC, Channel 4 and of course enjoy the ITV World Cup coverage irrespective of your actual location. When you’re finished simply disconnect or change the location of your server.   For sports fans abroad it opens up other options too especially for football and you can stream Match of the Day using the same method.

There are loads of these around and most that have a UK based server should work fine for accessing the ITV. Many are blocked automatically by BBC but there’s still lots of VPN services which work with all the UK main channels.  If you don’t want to use a VPN then you could try this Smart DNS free trial which works well too but without the security features.

Here’s the one we use, it’s one of the biggest, mainstream services and is perfect for enjoying the 2019 World Cup coverage on the ITV as well as the BBC and all the other UK TV channels.

NordVPN Special Offer Page

I’m not sure what the current prices are as there are frequently special deals but it’s usually the best value of the global VPN services.  Don’t worry they don’t mention TV watching or the various channels, it’s a deliberate tactic to avoid being blocked.

First lets have a look at the different pools for the group stages –

Group Stages – Rugby World Cup 2019

There are a total of 20 teams taking part in the competition this year:

POOL A

• Ireland
• Scotland
• Japan
• Russia
• Samoa

POOL B

• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Italy
• Namibia
• Canada

POOL C

• England
• France
• Argentina
• United States
• Tonga

POOL D

• Australia
• Wales
• Georgia
• Fiji
• Uruguay

Some mouth watering games there and certainly no easy groups although the British press have dubbed England’s group as the ‘group of death’ because of Argentina and France.  Not sure that’s entirely true but it’s certainly not the easiest group in the competition’s first stages.

Complete Fixture list of the Rugby World Cup 2019

All the following fixtures are in UK time (GMT), remember the tournament is in Japan if you want to check your local time. Japan uses JST which is nine hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Match 1: Japan v Russia
Friday 20th September – 11:45am

Match 2: Australia v Fiji
Saturday 21st September – 5:45am

Match 3: France v Argentina
Saturday 21st September – 8:15am

Match 4: New Zealand v South Africa
Saturday 21st September – 10:45am

Match 5: Italy v Namibia
Sunday 22nd September – 6:15am

Match 6: Ireland v Scotland
Sunday 22nd September – 8:45am

Match 7: England v Tonga
Sunday 22nd September – 11:15am

Match 8: Wales v Georgia
Monday 23rd September – 11:15am

Match 9: Russia v Samoa
Tuesday 24th September – 11:15am

Match 10: Fiji v Uruguay
Wednesday 25th September – 6:15am

Match 11: Italy v Canada
Thursday 26th September – 8:45am

Match 12: England v USA
Thursday 26th September – 11:45am

Match 13: Argentina v Tonga
Saturday 28th September – 5:45am

Match 14: Japan v Ireland
Saturday 28th September – 8:15am

Match 15: South Africa v Namibia
Saturday 28th September – 10:45am

Match 16: Georgia v Uruguay
Sunday 29th September – 6:15am

Match 17: Australia v Wales
Sunday 29th September – 8:45am

Match 18: Scotland v Samoa
Monday 30th September – 11:15am

Match 19: France v USA
Wednesday 2nd October – 8:45am

Match 20: New Zealand v Canada
Wednesday 2nd October – 11:15am

Match 21: Georgia v Fiji
Thursday 3rd October – 6:15am

Match 22: Ireland v Russia
Thursday 3rd October – 11:15am

Match 23: South Africa v Italy
Friday 4th October – 10:45am

Match 24: Australia v Uruguay
Saturday 5th October – 6:15am

Match 25: England v Argentina
Saturday 5th October – 9:00am

Match 26: Japan v Samoa
Saturday 5th October – 11:30am

Match 27: New Zealand v Namibia
Sunday 6th October – 5:45am

Match 28: France v Tonga
Sunday 6th October – 8:45am

Match 29: South Africa v Canada
Tuesday 8th October – 11:15am

Match 30: Argentina v USA
Wednesday 9th October – 5:45am

Match 31: Scotland v Russia
Wednesday 9th October – 8:15am

Match 32: Wales v Fiji
Wednesday 9th October – 10:45am

Match 33: Australia v Georgia
Friday 11th October – 11:15am

Match 34: New Zealand v Italy
Saturday 12th October – 5:45am

Match 35: England v France
Saturday 12th October – 9:15am

Match 36: Ireland v Samoa
Saturday 12th October – 11:45am

Match 37: Namibia v Canada
Sunday 13th October – 4:15am

Match 38: USA v Tonga
Sunday 13th October – 6:45am

Match 39: Wales v Uruguay
Sunday 13th October – 9:15am

Match 40: Japan v Scotland
Sunday 13th October – 11:45am

QF1: Pool C winner v Pool D runner up
Saturday 19th October – 8:15am

QF2: Pool B winner v Pool A runner up
Saturday 19th October – 11:15am

QF3: Pool D winner v Pool C runner up
Sunday 20th October – 8:15am

QF4: Pool A winner v Pool B runner up
Sunday 20th October – 11:15am

SF1: QF1 winner v QF2 winner
Saturday 26th October – 9:00am

SF2: QF3 winner v QF4 winner
Sunday 27th October – 9:00am

Third-place playoff: SF1 loser v SF2 loser
Friday 1st November – 9:00am

Final: SF1 winner v SF2 winner
Saturday 2nd November – 9:00am