How to watch the URC and Champions Cup in Ireland

The provinces are the one bit of Irish rugby you might actually pay for. The good news is that you can pay for it by the month, and for a good chunk of the season you do not have to pay at all.

Who has it this season

• Free-to-air Some of it Review
  • Free

  TG4 shows at least 26 URC games a season free, including some knockouts and the 2027 final; RTÉ has one Champions Cup game a week.

• NOW Most of it Review
  • €14.99/day pass A day pass covers one day of it.
  • €33.99/month

  Premier Sports has every Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht URC game, 21 of them exclusive, plus every Champions Cup game to the end of 2026/27.

• Sky Most of it Review
  • €34/month (12-month contract)

  Premier Sports has every Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht URC game, 21 of them exclusive, plus every Champions Cup game to the end of 2026/27. Same channels, as a Sky add-on on a 12-month contract.

Rights and prices checked 2026-09-19. Standard prices; intro offers can be lower.

Three broadcasters. TG4 is the exclusive free-to-air home of the URC in the Republic to the end of 2028/29: at least 26 games a season, including selected quarter- and semi-finals, and the Grand Finals in 2025, 2027 and 2029. Premier Sports has every game involving Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht, with one exclusive Irish game per round, 21 a season, and every URC final; its deal runs to 2029.

In Europe, Premier Sports is the lead broadcaster of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup to the end of 2026/27, with all 63 Champions Cup games. RTÉ has had a free game a week under an exception in that deal, so check its listings for this season’s picks. RTÉ rugby (official source, opens in a new tab) We have found no Irish deal for Europe from 2027/28 yet.

The cheapest way to watch most of it

TG4 for free, and NOW Sports Extra for the rest, in the months you want it. The Sports Extra membership carries both Premier Sports channels and TNT Sports with no contract, so the pattern is: buy it in the autumn for the interpros, drop it over the quiet weeks, buy it again for the European knockouts in April and May, drop it before the summer.

Sports Extra Day memberships suit a one-off derby or a European quarter-final. Two a month is cheaper than the monthly; four is not.

The Sky Sports Extra add-on gives you the same channels on a 12-month contract. Only go that way if you are a Sky household already.

What’s free

TG4 on Saorview and the TG4 Player: a URC game most weekends from late September, some of the knockouts and the 2027 Grand Final on 19 June. Any Champions Cup games RTÉ picks, on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Ireland’s internationals are all free too; see the Ireland guide.

The calendar

• Friday 25 September 2026: URC season starts. 18 regular-season rounds, then play-offs.
• Champions Cup 2026/27: pool rounds on 16 to 18 October and 11 to 13 December 2026, then 8 to 10 and 15 to 17 January 2027. Round of 16 on 2 to 4 April, quarter-finals 9 to 11 April, semi-finals 30 April to 2 May.
• Saturday 22 May 2027: Champions Cup final, Lyon. The Challenge Cup final is the night before.
• Saturday 19 June 2027: URC Grand Final, on TG4.
• The Six Nations break in February and March is when the provinces go quiet; cancel then.

TG4 through the aerial, a few months of NOW for the derbies and Europe. Sort me out with the finder, or go straight to the source.

Read the Premier Sports review and the NOW review first, and pick a streaming stick if your telly does not run the apps. Everything else is on the watch index.