eir Sport gathered stars from across Rugby, Football and gaelic Games yesterday to mark the launch of it’s season of sport.
The loss of exclusivity on BT Sport programming is a blow to the station but they retain a substantial set of sports rights, offered free to eir Broadband customers and the jewel in the crown is as the main Irish broadcaster of the Rugby World Cup.
The eir Sports pack will include all 48 games in the rugby World Cup, every game in the Guinness PRO14 tournament; every UEFA Champions League game; every UEFA Europa League game UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifiers live FA Cup games, SSE Airtricity League games and the Republic of Ireland’s U21 Home Qualifiers.
Coverage will also include action from the Allianz Hurling and Football Leagues, Wimbledon tennis, The French Open and The Masters.
Yesterday’s launch took place at the Sport Ireland Campus.
Tommy Bowe and Mike Phillips were joined by fellow rugby stars Louise Galvin, Jerry Flannery, James Lowe, Gordon D’Arcy and Liam Toland who will all form part of eir sport’s Rugby World Cup coverage.
Former Australian World Cup finalist Scott Fardy will also be part of the panel.
Champions League winner Wes Brown and UEFA Cup (now Europa League) winner Emile Heskey, along with Jack Byrne who was part of the Republic of Ireland squad for the recent draw with Switzerland and former Bohemians and Ipswich Town goalkeeper Shane Supple were also at the Sport Ireland Campus from a soccer perspective.
Shane supple’s support of former teammate Jonathan Walters after last week’s attack by Roy Keane has been widely covered across media over the past 24 hours.
Ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland Football Final Replay between Kerry and Dublin, former Kingdom star and eir sport analyst Marc Ó Sé and former Dubs star Alan Brogan were also in demand among media looking for their views on the replay.
“eir sport and the eir sport pack go from strength to strength,” said an optimistic Susan Brady, managing Director of eir Sport.
“We have more great sports content than ever for Irish sports fans to enjoy in one place.
“In the coming weeks rugby fans won’t miss a second of the action in the Rugby World Cup and the team both on air and behind the scenes are working extremely hard to ensure top class, innovative coverage.”
“We are also very excited about our second season as the home of the Guinness PRO14 and how that will be boosted by the surge in optimism around the sport as well as the continued success of the Irish provinces.”
“Following our recent agreement with Virgin Media Sport, fans will also be able to see all the best European soccer action on the eir sport pack.”
“It’s an exciting time for eir sport as we continue to bring the best of Irish and international sport to our viewers.”
Image Credits: Morgan Treacy, Inpho.ie