How to watch the Six Nations free online from anywhere

The first round of the 2026 Six Nations will kick off on Thursday, February 5 at 9:10 PM CET (8:10 PM GMT) with France vs Ireland at Stade de France. That’s not all, though: on Saturday, February 7 we then have Italy vs Scotland followed by England vs Wales. We’ll explain how to live stream every single Six Nations game for free online, even if you’re abroad.

This article will only recommend official Six Nations broadcasters. Although unlicensed streams are a sad inevitability for major sporting events, there’s really no reason to use them. First, these streams are often laggy, on a delay, and low-resolution. Further, with copyright holders monitoring forums and actively taking down unofficial streams, there’s no guarantee you’ll even get to see which team wins. You can watch the Six Nations for free in many countries anyway, meaning there’s no need for unlicensed streams.

The Six Nations will only be shown on region-locked platforms. If you’re traveling abroad and there’s no official broadcaster where you are, you’ll need a VPN to access your home services. 

How to watch the Six Nations live online (for free)

With a VPN, accessing regionally restricted content is very simple. Follow the steps below to stream the Six Nations from wherever you are in the world.

Here’s how to live stream the Six Nations online free, from anywhere:

1. Begin by signing up for a suitable VPN service. We recommend NordVPN but Surfshark and IPVanish are two great alternatives.
2. Download your VPN’s app, making sure to get the right version for your device.
3. Decide which service you’d like to use and connect to a VPN server in the appropriate country. For instance, you’d need a British server to unblock BBC iPlayer or an Italian one for DMAX.
4. Try visiting your chosen website. It should load almost immediately but you might have to clear your browser’s cookies and cache, then refresh the page.

As this event will be broadcast live, we strongly suggest running through the steps above well in advance of the first match starting. This way, if anything doesn’t work as expected, you’ll still have time to get help from your VPN’s customer support staff and might not have to miss any of the game.

Where to watch the Six Nations 2026 for free on UK TV

British rugby fans can watch every single Six Nations fixture for free with most matches – including every England game – to broadcast on ITV. You can watch ITV online via its streaming platform, ITVX. The BBC is showing one match each round which you can live stream via BBC iPlayer. Additionally, S4C will show every Wales match live with Welsh commentary.

Note that you’ll need to sign up for a free account if you don’t have one already to watch ITVX and BBC iPlayer content. This requires providing an email address and UK postal code in each case (any UK postcode is accepted).

As you’ll be watching live content as it airs on TV, UK legislation requires you to have a TV License. However, none of these services actually verifies that you have one, so this is all too easy to accidentally overlook. One difference is that you need a TV license even to watch BBC iPlayer content on-demand but that’s not the case with ITVX.

ITVX, BBC iPlayer, and S4C are geo-locked and only available in the UK. However, if you’re abroad, you can still access them with a British VPN server. You can watch the Six Nations completely risk-free as NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can simply cancel after the Six Nations if you’re unhappy with the service or no longer need a VPN.

Where else can I watch the Six Nations online?

The Six Nations is Britain’s highest-profile rugby tournament, so it should come as no surprise that it’ll be broadcast in many countries worldwide. Take a look below to find official sources where you live:

USA

The Six Nations will be broadcast exclusively on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. However, while you can watch some content for free, you’ll need a Premium plan ($10.99 USD per month) to stream this tournament. On the plus side, users can watch live or on-demand, and all 15 games will be available.

Peacock is only accessible in the US. If you’d like to access it abroad, you’ll have to connect to one of your VPN’s American servers first.

France

Streaming the Six Nations is incredibly simple if you’re in France: every game is available live on France 2 which you can watch online via France TV. This service is free but you’ll need to create an account to stream content live or on-demand. You will, however, have to either be in France or using a French VPN server in order to watch.

Italy

In Italy, TV8 will show all of Italy’s games live, free of charge. You don’t even need an account to watch online. If you want to watch Six Nations games not involving Italy, you’d need a Sky Italia subscription to do so. As with the services above, TV8 and Sky Italia are region-locked. To watch, you have to either be in Italy or connected to an Italian VPN server.

Ireland

2026 Six Nations fixtures will be split between RTÉ and Virgin Media, both of which are free to watch. To watch them online, simply go to RTÉ Player or Virgin Media Play and start streaming. There’s no need to create an account in either case, although you will have to connect to one of your VPN’s Irish servers if you’re outside of Ireland.

Other locations

Can’t find your country above? There’s no need to panic: the Six Nations will be shown in numerous other countries too. Here’s a list of official international broadcasters.

How does the Six Nations tournament work?

Essentially, the Six Nations is pretty straightforward: each team plays all the others in the tournament once. Winning a game gets you four points (or five points if you score four or more tries), and tying gets each team two points (with a further point available for squads with four or more tries). Usually, when a team loses, it gets no points but can be awarded one bonus point if it loses by seven points or less and another if it scores more than three tries.

When a country’s squad goes undefeated, it’s called Grand Slam, and they’re given three extra points. As you can imagine, this is a fairly rare occurrence, with just 39 instances since 1908.

Should the Six Nations end in a tie, the team with more points scored and fewer points conceded will win. In the highly unlikely event of a further tie, the total number of tries will be considered, and if this is also exactly the same, both teams will share the number one spot.

Which country is expected to win?

Defending champions France are the current favorites to win the 2026 Six Nations Championship. Ireland were back-to-back champions in 2023 and 2024 but currently sit behind England in the betting odds. Scotland are considered relative outsiders in comparison while it would be seen as a major shock if Wales or Italy won it.

When is the next Six Nations tournament?

On February 5, 2026, defending champions France will play runners-up Ireland in the opening game of the 2026 Six Nations Championship. England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales will compete against one another in the annual international men’s rugby union event. This tournament features a round-robin format known as the Guinness Six Nations Championship. The event’s winner is determined by the total number of points accumulated by each team during their single matchups with each other.

2026 Six Nations schedule