Rugby World Cup on NBC Sports

NBC Sports will provide coverage of the Rugby World Cup, which begins September 20 in Japan. NBCSN will have the opening match, Russia versus Japan, and all four U.S. matches.

Over the course of the six-week tournament, NBC Sports will present more than 250 hours of World Cup matches, original programming and additional content. All 48 matches will be available live, commercial-free and on-demand on the NBC Sports Gold streaming platform. 26 matches will be shown live on NBCSN, and streamed via authentication on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. Some games will also be shown on delay on NBC.

The U.S. plays England Sept. 26 at 6:45 a.m. ET, France Oct. 2 at 3:35 a.m., Argentina Oct. 9 at 12:45 a.m. and Tonga Oct. 13 at 1:45 a.m. All U.S. games are live on NBCSN.

The quarterfinals will be held Oct. 19-20, and the semifinals Oct. 26-27.

The World Cup final happens Saturday, Nov. 2, from International Stadium Yokohama. Both semifinal matches and the final will be available live on NBC Sports Gold and NBCSN. The final will re-air on NBC.

NBC sells the NBC Sports Gold World Cup package for $199.99. A single match costs $29.99.

New Zealand, its rugby squad known as the All Blacks, defeated Australia in the final of the 2015 World Cup. The U.S. went 0-4.

The U.S. team is ranked No. 13 in the world, according to World Rugby. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.