The 2019 Rugby Championship will be the eighth edition of one of the biggest rugby union tournaments in the Southern Hemisphere, with New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and South Africa set to battle it out for supremacy over the course of three weeks in July and August. 

New Zealand will be looking to take out their fourth consecutive Rugby Championship and their sixth in seven years, having won every year since the tournament took on its current format aside from in 2015, when Australia took it out. They have a dominant team and will be tough to beat, but you can tune into every minute of Australia’s attempt to upset them when watching at home on TV or streaming live to an eligible device.

2019 Rugby Championship Preview

The inaugural edition of what has now become the Rugby Championship took place back in 1996. Back then, it was played between just three teams – the Australia Wallabies, New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks – and was known as the Tri-Nations. After sixteen years – during which New Zealand won ten times – the Argentina Pumas were added and the event became known as the Rugby Championship. The newcomers haven’t enjoyed much success since joining, finishing last on six of seven occasions, while New Zealand have continued their dominance with six more victories to take it to 16 total tournament wins from 23 events.

When: July 21-August 10
Where: Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa

This year, the All Blacks are comfortable favourites to add yet another piece of silverware to their trophy cabinet, but they’ll need to do that in a condensed version of the tournament. Where previous editions have seen each team play each other twice, the Rugby World Cup and annual mid-year internationals have forced the 2019 tournament to be reduced to just three games each. With each team playing one another on just one occasion, a solitary upset has the potential to have a drastic impact on the outcome of the tournament, and victory is far from assured for the dominant Kiwis, whose match-up against the Wallabies on the 10th of August will act as the first match of the Bledisloe Cup, with the second and final game to be played a week later on the 17th of August.

2019 Rugby Championship Live TV Times (Sydney time)

All events shown as Sydney time, adjust for regional differences.

Live Rugby Championship Streaming and a Free trial

While Channel Ten is the official Rugby Championship free to air provider in Australia, they will only be broadcasting the matches involving the Wallabies. Alternatively, Fox Sports (Foxtel/Kayo) is the place for you, televising every match of every round of the Rugby Championship Live and ad-break free. This includes replays of the games you may have missed and an opportunity to watch the Rugby Championship live online with compatible internet connected devices.

So if you’re a resident of Australia you may wish to review the Kayo Sports 14 day free trial offering. With Kayo you will have access to these exact same Fox Sports broadcasts and programming, and can stream the 2019 Rugby Championship live using eligible mobile devices. Kayo also offers on-demand replays of the matches after they concluded, which is quite convenient considering the early morning start times for several of this year’s fixtures. 

Don’t forget the Bledisloe and Rugby World Cups

The action doesn’t end with this year’s Rugby Championship, with the New Zealand All Blacks and Australian Wallabies squaring off in the 2019 Bledisloe Cup, this year’s series having been shortened to two matches to accommodate the Rugby World Cup. The first match will be August 10, the final on August 17. This will give plenty of time for the sides to choose their best players and rest up for the World Cup, which kicks off on September 20, and concludes on November 2. New Zealand are the defending Rugby World Cup champs, while Australia finished runner-up, having lost to the All Blacks in the title match.

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