S4C to air Wales’ Rugby World Cup journey

S4C has acquired the rights to air all of Wales’ matches live at the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

Ioan Cunningham’s side begin the tournament against Scotland on 9 October, before facing hosts New Zealand on 16 October and Australia on 22 October. Should Wales make it that far, the final will take place on 12 November, and S4C will show all knockout games the side is involved in if it stays in the competition. 

With the time difference meaning games will be in the early hours of the morning for UK viewers, S4C will show live online coverage of each game on S4C Clic and the S4C YouTube page. A full match replay will then be shown on S4C, S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer later in the day, as well as all the reaction and analysis.

Heledd Anna will host S4C’s coverage, while a host of current and former Wales internationals will provide expert analysis of each game.

Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap said: “We are thrilled S4C will be following our journey in New Zealand with live coverage of our matches along with full replays at a time when many of our women’s teams will be getting ready to play their own games back in Welsh rugby clubs.

“We are all very proud to fly the flag for Welsh rugby over the coming weeks and it’s very important to us that we can continue to grow the support that we enjoyed over the recent TikTok Women’s Six Nations.”

Anna added: “This is an exciting time for the Welsh national team and the Rugby World Cup is a huge opportunity for the team to show that they can take the next step and compete with the world’s best.

“They are in a tough pool but they have prepared very well in their training camp and we hope that they will be ready for the challenges that face them.

“We will follow the Welsh camp closely on S4C, with interviews and build-up during the week on the @S4CRygbi social media channels, as well as our dedicated match-day coverage, so we hope you can join us for the whole journey.”