{"id":555088,"date":"2026-07-17T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555088\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:13:08","slug":"how-to-watch-new-zealand-vs-ireland-for-free-nations-championship-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555088\/","title":{"rendered":"How to watch New Zealand vs Ireland for FREE: Nations Championship 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch New Zealand v Ireland as two teams boasting 100 per cent records in the Nations Championship<\/a> meet in a mouth-watering clash at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Victories over Australia and Japan in Rounds One and Two stretched Ireland\u2019s winning run to six matches, but they will have to produce the performance of their lives to extend that streak to seven. Andy Farrell\u2019s men head to Auckland aiming to become the first team to win at New Zealand\u2019s iconic national stadium since 1994, with the All Blacks unbeaten in 52 games at the 50,000-capacity venue.<\/p>\n

You can watch New Zealand v Ireland live streams for free in the UK, Ireland and France. Read on to find out how to watch the game, wherever you are in the world this weekend \u2013 including details of how you can use a VPN<\/a> to watch your usual streams if you\u2019re abroad right now.<\/p>\n

Here are just some of the free options available to you today to watch New Zealand v Ireland:<\/p>\n

United Kingdom: New Zealand v Ireland is available on both terrestrial channel ITV1 and the ITVX<\/a> streaming service. Remember you\u2019ll need a TV license to watch the action live with coverage starting at 7:30am.
\nIreland: Rugby fans in Ireland can watch New Zealand v Ireland for free on Virgin Media One and Virgin Media<\/a> Play<\/a>. The pre-match build-up starts at 7.30am, before the game gets underway at 8.10am.
\nFrance: New Zealand v Ireland live streams are available for free on the TF1+<\/a> streaming service. The programme gets underway at 9.00am CET, with kick-off at 9.10am, although coverage will switch to Japan v France at 10.30am.
\nUnited States: In the US you can watch New Zealand v Ireland on RugbyPass TV<\/a>. It\u2019s free to use, though you do need to register before you can start streaming the action. The game kicks off at 3.10am EDT\/12.10am PDT on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Abroad this weekend? Get a VPN<\/a> and stream the action from anywhere \u2014 find out more below.<\/p>\n

Overseas right now? That doesn\u2019t mean you have to miss the Nations Championship. By using a VPN you can avoid the geo-blocking restrictions that might otherwise prevent you from tuning in to New Zealand v Ireland when you\u2019re overseas. There are plenty of good VPNs you can buy, but the tech experts at TechRadar<\/a> reckon NordVPN is currently world number one.<\/p>\n

More ways to watch New Zealand v Ireland<\/p>\n

Australia: Stan Sport<\/a> is the place to go for New Zealand v Ireland live streams down under. You\u2019ll need a $20 per month Stan Sport plan (in addition to your base Stan subscription which is $12) to tune in. Kick-off is at 5.10pm AEST.
\nNew Zealand: Fans in New Zealand can watch New Zealand v Ireland on Sky Sport<\/a>, which costs $54.99 per month for a streaming subscription ($29.99 day options are also available). Kick-off is 7.10pm NZST.
\nSouth Africa: SuperSport<\/a> will be your destination for New Zealand v Ireland live streams in South Africa, and is available via DStv and streaming. The match gets underway at 9.10am SAST today.<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Ireland match preview<\/p>\n

There is nowhere in world rugby quite like Eden Park. The home of the All Blacks, the most iconic team on the planet, has proved impossible for visiting sides to breach for 52 Tests across 32 years, its aura growing with every unbeaten game. New Zealand arrive at their fortress having racked up 81 points in their two Nations Championship 2026 matches to date, edging out France 34-32 and thrashing Italy 47-17. Will Jordan scored a hat-trick in the latter contest to become the All Blacks\u2019 record tryscorer, with 50 in just 56 Tests. He retains his place against Ireland, while Josh Moorby makes his first start on the opposite wing.<\/p>\n

Ireland also began the Southern Series with two victories, but Andy Farrell\u2019s men attracted criticism for their performances in beating Australia 33-31 and overcoming Japan 36-20. The head coach rotated his side heavily for last Saturday\u2019s game against the Brave Blossoms and has recalled the big guns for one of the toughest tests in world rugby. Fit-again wing Robert Baloucoune is one of nine players to come in to face New Zealand, with captain Dan Sheehan and Hugo Keenan also returning in a XV that boasts 711 caps combined.<\/p>\n

Read more: \u201cI\u2019m not scared to make my dreams known\u201d \u2013 Noah Caluori speaks to Rugby World<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand vs Ireland: Team News<\/p>\n

New Zealand:\u00a015 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Josh Moorby, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Luke Jacobson, 6 Tupou Vaa\u2019i, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot.<\/p>\n

Replacements:\u00a016 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Anton Segner, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Caleb Clark.<\/p>\n

Ireland:\u00a015 Hugo Keenan, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jimmy O\u2019Brien, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan (captain), 1 Tom O\u2019Toole.<\/p>\n

Replacements:\u00a016 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Jeremy Loughman, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Nick Timoney, 20 Sean Jansen, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Bundee Aki.<\/p>\n

We recommend VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:<\/p>\n

We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch New Zealand v Ireland as two teams boasting 100 per cent records in the Nations Championship meet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-555088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}