eir Sport is to broadcast the Ireland v New Zealand clash in Chicago on Saturday, 5th November. The news was revealed in Dublin yesterday by Former Munster and All Black star Doug Howlett.
The one-off test match will be played in Chicago’s 61,500 seater Soldier Field stadium with a start time of 8pm Irish time putting it right at the heart of Prime Time viewing.
The game is the first of Ireland’s Autumn test matches. It will be followed a week later by the visit of Canada to the Aviva Stadium, then the following Saturday by a second match against the All Blacks in Dublin and rounded off by the visit of Australia on November 26th.
Ireland’s Women will play England, Canada and New Zealand on the same of those last three weekends. The three matches will take place at the UCD Bowl in preparation for next Summer’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
eir Sport will also broadcast the much anticipated Munster v Maori All Blacks game, which takes place on Friday, 11th November. This will be the first time both sides will meet in Thomond Park.
These fixtures are part of un impressive autumn of rugby coverage on the eir Sport pack this Autumn. Leinster’s first game in the European Rugby Champions Cup on Saturday, October 15th, Connacht and Ulster’s games in Round 2, and December’s double headers for Leinster and Munster Rugby will also be on the channel.
eir Sport will show every game in the Women’s Rugby World Cup next summer and has also won the irish broadcast rights to the Rugby World Cup in 2023 though some of those games including those involving Ireland will likely need to be sub licensed to be shown on free to air television.
“Following on from our 2019 Rugby World Cup rights announcement we are delighted to confirm more international rugby with New Zealand v Ireland live from Chicago on Saturday, November 5th,” said Brian Quinn Operations Director of eir Sport commented.
“It promises to be a fantastic occasion and really adds to our ever growing selection of rugby content.”
“Along with the confirmation of the Conor McGregor v Eddie Alvarez UFC 205 lightweight title fight on Saturday, November 12th, this is more good news for eir Broadband bundle customers, who can receive all of this great sport for free.”
Brian Quinn will be one of an impressive line up of experts at the inaugural One Zero Conference taking place in Dublin at the RDS on Friday October 21st.
He will be joined by James Grigg of Bleacher Report, Alex Trickett the Head of Sport with Twitter and Lisa Clancy to explore the changing face of sports media.
The one day event will look at Fan Engagement with leaders from Stats and Two Circles; at Nutrition with Daniel Kings from Aspetar in Qatar and Stephen Nolan of Nutritics; at Innovation with Mounir Zok, the Head of Innovation with the US Olympic Committee and much more besides.
The key learnings for sport and business will be interspersed with keynote interviews with Sir Clive Woodward, Jaimie Fuller, Shane Lowry, John Kavanagh and, in his only European appearance in 2016, Lance Armstrong. A limited number of tickets are still available starting at €175. Click here to find out more.
