FOR IRISH RUGBY fans, it has been a long wait through a fairly average summer to see the Six Nations champions in action again.

Unfortunately, unless you’re one of the 74,500 people with a ticket for the Millennium Stadium today, watching this game is not as straightforward as usual.

Wait. You mean the game’s not on TV?

That’s right. The first of Ireland’s four Rugby World Cup warm-ups will not be carried live by Sky, TV3 or RTÉ.

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

It will be shown on BBC Wales, but that channel is not readily available on this side of the Irish Sea and BBC have confirmed to The42 that the match is not scheduled to be carried on either BBC Northern Ireland or through the red button on the Beeb’s digital stations.

RTÉ 2 (20.00) and Sky Sports 3 (21.30) have both highlights packages from the match on Saturday evening… but who can wait ’til then, right?

If you’ve an IP address in Northern Ireland (or anywhere in the UK), then you can watch online through the BBC iPlayer.

Or you could use your ears. Though RTÉ don’t have live TV coverage, the radio arm of the national broadcaster will have live commentary from Cardiff on RTÉ Radio 1.

WHY!? Why is this happening?

Sky Sports acquired the rights for Ireland’s home fixtures and all of England’s games in this warm-up series (so you can watch the remaining three pre-RWC games live on Sky).

Unlike the RFU and IRFU, the WRU struck a deal with the BBC that gave live rights of their two home games to BBC Wales. Just as we’re struggling to see this weekend’s game, that broadcaster will only be able to present late highlights when Sky’s rights kick in for the return fixture at Aviva Stadium on 29 August.

Solution

There are ways, rugby fans, *nods sagely* ways. If you have a Sky box you can go hunting for BBC One Wales and have it ready to go. Here’s how.

1. Go to ‘Options’ in your Sky menu and look for the ‘Add Channels’ tab

2. Here are the details you need to enter

This is courtesy of a516digital.com (which has more channel details you can browse right here)

Frequency: 10.788.

Polarisation: V

Symbol rate: 22.0

FEC: 5/6

DVB-S

QPSK.

You’ll type in the frequency using the keypad on your remote control, but the others can be selected by scrolling left or right when highlighting the field. Don’t worry about messing up the settings for your existing channels, the figures will correct themselves after you’ve done.

Hit the yellow button to start the search.

3. Select BBC One Wales from the menu

If you can’t see it on the list, try running step two again. Highlight BBC One Wales and hit the yellow button. Press select on your remote when you’ve finished adding channels.

4. BBC One Wales will now appear in the ‘Other Channels’ tab of your options menu

Happy watching.

(*There are other semi-legal options around the internet which we couldn’t possibly condone.)

– First published 10.40