How To Watch The Currie Cup and Bunnings NPC in the UK and Ireland

05 Aug 2021

Update:

Sky Sports have now announced they'll be showing The Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship in UK and Ireland. However, they are not showing Currie Cup and Bunnings NPC, so this article shows a very good, if not better alternative if you don't already have Sky.

So far The Bledisloe Cup, The Rugby Championship, Bunnings NPC and Currie Cup are not being shown on TV in the UK and Ireland, now Sky have seemingly abandoned rugby.

However, there is a way to still get your fix of Southern Hemisphere Rugby, using an online service in Australia, called Stan Sport, who are covering all the competitons listed above, as well as the Lions tour, Super Rugby and lots more.

It’s available with a 30 day free trial, which can be cancelled at anytime.

Stan Sports

There’s also an insane back catalogue on there, including replays of all the Super Rugby finals, and all the Australian internationals going back decades.

How it Works

In order to access Stan, you’ll need to use a VPN. For those not up to speed, it’s a “Virtual Private Network” that then shows your network as if you’re anywhere in the world, so in this case, set it to Australia and you can access Stan like any Australian can.

Not all VPNs are created equally though, and some are unable to get behind the geoblock. For example, trying with VPN Unlimited this morning allowed me to sign up to Stan, but then wouldn’t actually let me watch the content.

I then used NordVPN and it worked perfectly, it’s available for only a few quid a month depending on your plan. You can take a look here.

How much does it cost?

Stan Sport is an add-on to a Stan plan. The basic plan starts at $10 AUD a month, allowing you to watch on one screen at a time in standard definition. $14 AUD gets your 3 screens at a time and HD. Then on top of this you need to add the sport package, which is fixed at $10 AUD a month, regardless of Stan plan.

So the minimum cost for Stan Sport is $20 AUD, which is around £11 a month, very reasonable compared to Sky Sports, and offers much more rugby.

Step by Step Guide:

  • Get a VPN, I recommend NordVPN as I know from first-hand experience it works for Stan and some others don’t.
  • Create an account on Stan, you just need some standard details and a random Australian post code, I used this to help!
  • Use your VPN to access from a server in Australia
  • Watch the content on your computer, on install your VPN on your phone, tablet etc and cast to your TV.

Let me know how you all get on!