The Rugby World Cup is due to start tomorrow in England, and we are fully behind the Boks to bring the trophy back home.
If you don’t have access to a television for the duration of the tournament, or you do but you don’t want to watch the SABC’s standard-definition coverage, you don’t have to despair for we are here to help: we’ve discovered various ways and means for you to catch the games online!
You’ll need some sort of computing device with internet access, of course, but you’re a faithful htxt.africa reader so you’ve already got that covered, so now all you need to do is find out where to go and what to do.
On to the options!
UnoTelly
Bypass service UnoTelly allows users to spoof their location so that it seems like they are based in the US (or any other nation that Unotelly supports), which then grants them access to paid-for services like Netflix, Hulu and the like that are only available in those regions.
The service is currently $5 a month (about R66), but it also has a seven-day free trial.
Once you have signed up for a package or the trial and configured your router or access point, you have to make sure that your account registers as ‘All Good’ on the service’s client dashboard.
If everything looks good on that front, all you need to do then is to check which matches you want to watch.
To watch matches online through UnoTelly, the UK’s iTV is going to be your best bet.
Through your configured router’s internet connection, visit iTV’s schedule page to see at what times the Rugby World Cup games you’d like to watch are being streamed.
Once you’ve done that, go to iTV’s main page, hover over ‘Watch Live’, and select either the main iTV channel or iTV4.
Sling TV
Speaking of using UnoTelly to get around pesky geo-blocking issues, Sling TV is another streaming service from the US that will give you access to the Rugby World Cup.
Sling TV is a streaming service that goes for $20 a month (R268), and gives you access to ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network and Disney. The key channels here are ESPN and ESPN2.
The best thing about Sling TV, is that it is not only available in website form, but also through Xbox, iOS and Android apps.
To access it, you need to set up your UnoTelly account the same way as you did for iTV above, with the only difference being that you have to download the Sling TV app on your favourite platform. Once that is done, simply sign in and watch every match on ESPN.
RugbyOnlineStream.com
This site will let you watch all World Cup games, for a surprisingly small amount of cash. Not only will you get access to all of the matches, but the Platinum package will get you an entire year’s worth of rugby games as well as a host of other sports, all streamed live and in HD.
That year will cost you less than a month of DStv, as all you need to pay is the equivalent of the $3.33 a month, which works out to $39.96 for a year. Convert that to rands (at today’s exchange rate), and you get R44.60 a month, and R535.24 a year. Not bad for all the RWC games and access to international sports channels like Watch ESPN and Sky Sports HD.
Or, if you’d prefer a six-month pass for rugby games only, you can pay $29.99 (R401.31). That’s not much of a saving for a whole lot less sport, but it’s an option.
Sound good? Head over to RugbyOnlineStream.com to sign up.
Just a note: This site doesn’t have a proven track record that we could see as yet, so if you have any reservations of your own about it, rather try one of the other options.
Cricfree.tv
If you don’t necessarily want to pay for a service, there is a free option available.
The website is, erm, not what one would exactly call legal, but at least you don’t have to download suspicious apps or programs.
The service hosts almost every sports channel under the sun, and it is incredibly easy to navigate.
From the home page, navigate to the ‘Rugby’ option on the top strip.
Once clicked, it will bring up a list of available matches that is ready to watch. When a World Cup is being played, it will have an orange ‘Watch’ icon next to it.
Click on it, and it should start playing the stream directly in the website’s built-in viewer.
And there you have it – four options to watch the Rugby World Cup games that don’t involve a television set or a subscription to an expensive pay-TV service.
[Image – CC by 2.0/Hannah Swithinbank]
