The Friday night game between the United States and Canada’s national rugby teams had eight lead changes and four times during the match when the opponents were separated by one point before the U.S. Eagles ran in a last minute try to win 30-25.
It was, as a first-time rugby viewer said afterwards, a “great match.”
Which leads to this question: Right now I can go out in the TV room and watch Scotland host Wales; Italy versus England is next and the Vancouver Sevens prelims will be on later this afternoon. Six Nations coverage continues tomorrow with France at Ireland and the Major League Rugby is on with San Diego at Toronto and then Houston at Seattle’s home team, the Seawolves, at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, another sellout.
So why wasn’t the great match between the U.S. Eagles and the Canadians on TV, cable or otherwise where I don’t have to pay premium boxing/wrestling/martial arts fees to watch? At least having it on TV would get it into the local newspaper’s TV listing to show that an international match is happening right here in River City.
Wasn’t ignored on KING-TV, who did a great article on the two Seattle Seawolves who played in last night’s game at Starfire:
The Eagles have three more games over the summer in the Pacific Nation Cup before they head into the Rugby World Cup in Japan in September. Will those games be on TV?
The rights to USA Rugby matches were acquired by FLO Rugby. FLO streams the games behind a paywall, so there is literally no chance to tell a new potential fan to ‘check out the game’. NBC Sports has 2 games/year to televise on linear platform. It’s a bad situation, and a complete sellout due to the incompetence of the leadership of the Union prior to mid 2018. You can thank Chang and Keck for this absurd course of events.
Thanks for the info, Tony. Bad situation is an understatement. See you Sunday at Starfire.