The Six Nations is back for another year. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy will all battle it out in arguably the most prestigious rugby union tournament of 2020.
Wales will be out to retain their title, and draw level with England on 28 outright victories, but Eddie Jones’ side will be out to avenge their loss in last year’s match after reaching the World Cup final. On the other side, Italy will hope to avoid taking home the wooden spoon for the fifth consecutive year.
It looks all set to be a captfivating few weeks, and the good news is you can watch completely free in the UK, just so long as you’ve got a TV licence. Here’s all you need to know.
Six Nations 2020: Fixtures & TV channels
Below we have a list of all the six nations games over the five weeks. You can see the date, who’s playing, kick-off time and what channel it’s being broadcast on. All times are GMT and the first team is playing home.
Round 1
- 1 Feb – Wales vs Italy – 2.15pm – BBC One/S4C
- 1 Feb – Ireland vs Scotland – 4.45pm – ITV
- 2 Feb – France vs England – 3pm – BBC One
Round 2
- 8 Feb – Ireland vs Wales – 2.15pm – ITV/S4C
- 8 Feb – Scotland vs England – 4.45pm – BBC One
- 9 Feb – France vs Italy – 3pm – BBC One
Round 3
- 22 Feb – Italy vs Scotland – 2.15pm – ITV
- 22 Feb – Wales vs France – 4.45pm – BBC One/S4C
- 23 Feb – England vs Ireland – 3pm – ITV
Round 4
- 7 March – Ireland vs Italy – 2.15pm – ITV
- 7 March – England vs Wales – 4.45pm – ITV/S4C
- 8 March – Scotland vs France – 3pm – BBC One
Round 5
- 14 March – Wales vs Scotland – 2.15pm – BBC One/S4C
- 14 March – Italy vs England – 4.45pm – ITV
- 14 March – France vs Ireland – 8pm – BBC One
Watch Six Nations online for free
Every match in the tournament will be shown on BBC One or ITV One, so you can tune in on your TV or online. All Wales games will also be shown on S4C.
To watch live on a PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet you can either use a Freeview app such as TVCatchup, or you can use the BBC or ITV’s own streaming apps, iPlayer and ITV Hub. You can opt to pay for ITV Hub+ if you want to watch ad-free (not for live streams) and get other benefits like catch-up abroad.
All three apps are free to download to a phone or tablet from the App Store or Google Play, and can be accessed in a web browser on a PC or laptop.
If you are not on an unlimited mobile data contract on your phone or tablet you should ensure that you are connected to Wi-Fi to avoid high data charges. To stream live rugby matches on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone you also need to have a valid TV Licence.
Check the rules out: Do I need a TV Licence?
Watching the Six Nations abroad
If you are on holiday and want to watch the Six Nations, you can do so using a VPN. You can download a VPN (virtual private network) from somewhere like Nord VPN to ‘browse from the UK’. You can also check the local broadcaster for your country on the official site, which might be ESPN or Supersport.
For full information, check out our best VPN services chart.