European Rugby on Aussie TV

True Tah As l said l dont mind if more Rugby comes on board but the reason l have the subscription (trial) is football. Mark Viduka, Kevin Muscat, and now McDonald and other Aussies ply their trade in Scotland BTW I'm no great fan of Harlequins? or Bath or Gloucester either.

Didn't realise you were such a huge fan of the likes of Kilmarnock and Dunferline. If Rangers and Celtic ever left SPL and went to EPL, would you still be a big fan of Scottish futbol?

Good luck to the Rugby guys to get more of your game on but...if they start taking football off then my subscription goes with it.

Spiro Murdoch is the man you should target, he holds the rights to the Guinness premiership and the Heineken Cup. Surely if enough Roar posties pestered him they would listen, presumably at the moment they assume there are not enough viewers to make it viable.

ESPN occasionally play a Guinness match and later in the season Heinenken Cup. It is frustrating not to have the good UK matches on when you are only paying your Setanta sub for the meagre rugby they play. So let's all pressure Setanta to give us more rugby.

Setanta is Irish and therefore a strong sports bias towards Celtic games ie Wales, Scotland and Ireland. As far as rugby is concerned they show the Magners League. I don't know the viewing figures to compare with the SPL, but I suspect otherthan Celtic and Rangers games the figures for the SPL are poor. For the first time, they were able to bid for and win 20% of televised EPL games as BSkyB were prohibited from bidding for that package as the powers that be decided Murdoch had too many EPL games on their platform. As BSkyB is owned by Murdoch and his cronies I don't understand why as far as rugby is concerned they can't make the GP,HC etc available in OZ. In the UK they are able to stream S14 etc., perhaps because they assume that the large numbers of ex-pats from OZ, SA and NZ make it a viable proposition 6Ns the biggest draw is on BBC (FTA) with the games attracting 5/7 million per game; good move by RFU and others as on a FTA platform it is great promotion of union. I believe Setanta may have bought rights to some of the games for worldwide distribution. There is an increasing clamour in the UK for more rugby union on FTA. ITV the commercial FTA channel has just won the right to show a 90 mins highhlights show of GP games every weekend, it will interesting to see viewing numbers although timings and use of digitai platform not available to all may compromise figures. In Wales there is a excellent rugby programme on BBC Wales called scrum 5 which I can pick up on the internet. They also feature games in the Magners league which can be picked up via the FTA digitial interactive platform.I found it useful as Quins, my club, are drawn against Ulster in the HC and they recently featured in a game v Dragons in Magners League game on that platform.

Here in the US Setanta gives us rugby from Heineken, Guiness, Magners, Currie Cup, ANZ Provincial matches, and English Premier League soccer.. I'd say 50% of Guiness & Heineken rugby games are hard to distinguish from EPL, except in the EPL they're meant to kick. Jools-USA

Um did any of you Rugger Buggers consider that maybe more people watch the Scottish Football than the Rugby Union,just a small point

I will write to setanta as well, they do not play enough rugby and they hardly seem to be on at a time when I am home to watch.

True Tah You are correct. The Georgians can't wait for the clash with Russia. Even the home based players are looking iat it for revenge for the invasion. The first round game between Russia and Georgia is scheduled 21st March, 2009, in Russia. It will probably be in the Rugby mad Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Hopefully, Russian TV will show a delayed replay over the internet. By the way, ltwo wweks ago, a local seven a side tournament was held in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. An American team was entered but I don't know who it represented, most probably "military advisors" based in Georgia.

Fox sports had 6N's and Heiny Cup for a while, but my guess is, that the rights cost way over the odds for the amount of Ad sales they are able to recoup. Otherwise, it would be a permanent fixture. Maybe the home nations are asking too much for the rights?

netrug, I cant wait to see Georgia play Russia next time, given the recent hostilities between the two countries, its a chance for our Georgian friends to get something on the board. Especially when you what the Georgian rugby players in France had to say. "We've been speaking amongst ourselves. We consulted each other and 80 per cent of us are ready to go off to battle, if in the next two or three days, the situation does not improve. We'll all go together. We're obliged to go, its our country. We want to defend it" Davit Kinchagishvili, Brive.

It is possible to get some Rugby from Europe live streamed over the internet, mainly from Georgia ans Russia. This year I was able to see the Georgia/Russia, Georgia/Portugal, Russia/Romania and Russia/Portugal games live. Russian games are actually on a delay so you will need to find out the broadcast times Spain is in the first division this time and it may be possible that their home games will be broadcast live as well. Rugby broadcasts can befound but it does require a bit of searching. Try smotri.tv for Russia and the public channel of Georgia TV for starters

ESPN show Heineken cup games too, also the occasional NH match (eg: USA vs Musnter & USA vs clermont tour matches last month) You just have to check out the guide on a week to week basis online in case of any updates etc. i too would like to see more NH rugby...

Thanks True Tah Sounds like a game that may be worth watching when it comes on Setanta.

Dave Ireland is split into 4 provinces - Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster, this is not just a rugby thing, it is a historical thing going back centuries. In Irish rugby, with the move to professional rugby, the decision was made to have the four provinces be the professional teams. Munster and Leinster have been the strongest teams, Munster - rugby is far more of a working class game there, whereas Leinster rugby is essentially middle class. This game is the biggest in Celtic rugby without any doubt, in the past, clashes between the 3 good Irish sides generally draw the biggest crowds in the comp (once they drew 45,000 at Lansdowne Road before it was redeveloped), admittedly the Scottish crowds are pathetic and aside from the Ospreys the same could be said of the Welsh. I guess Setanta does show any European rugby at all, it is likely to be Six Nations or Heineken Cup, neither of which have started yet.

Setanta have 2 channels so what we get in Oz maybe is a combination of Setanta 1 & 2. Have just put it on for a trial month because of all the football they show mainly WC qualifiers. I would say the reason more Rugby is not shown is because there is so much football on. True Tah You might help me here. Setanta have been running an ad for the biggest game in Celtic Rugby...Munster vs Leinster? Who/what are these teams?