At that time in Canada, I remember a 2-hour show that came on once a week (sometimes, at least) with a few highlights from the semi-pro teams and one test match shown on tape delay (usually a week or more old).

The only way to watch live rugby on TV was to find a local pub with a satellite feed. When I moved from the East coast to the Canadian Rockies, Oscar’s Pub was very close to our rugby club (Druids RFC) and would broadcast the Five Nations Championship (now the Six Nations, the premier tournament in the Northern hemisphere) at 7AM along with a good English fry-up and a few pints.

In 2002 I emigrated to the US. Even in down-state New York, where rugby is very popular, watching live rugby remained limited to pubs with satellite feeds and expensive admissions fees. It was essentially ignored by both network and cable TV.

With the growth of the internet and the wide bandwidth offered by most high-speed ISPs, online services such are RugbyZone are excellent options for seeing live rugby. But getting it on a TV is not trivial, and the quality is not appropriate for anything other than a small computer screen.

So after a wait of nearly 15 years, it seems that myself and many other rugby union fans here in the ‘New World’ can finally get some live-rugby broadcast satisfaction. Yesterday, BBC America announced that they will be broadcasting five matches from the 2010 Six Nations Championship.

Time Warner Cable in Wisconsin broadcasts BBC America on channel 225 (Regular Definition) and 1225 (High Definition), and the following matches are scheduled:

• Wales @ England (London) – 6-Feb, 12:00 PM (EST)
• Ireland @ France (Paris) – 13-Feb, 11:30 AM (EST)
• Ireland @ England (London) – 27-Feb, 11:00 AM (EST)
• Wales @ Ireland (Dublin) – 13-March, 9:30 AM (EST)
• England @ France (Paris) – 20-Mar, 9:00 AM (EST)

Interestingly, matches involving Italy or Scotland are visibly absent from the schedule. Its not clear wether this is due contractual restrictions with the Scottish and Italian Rugby Unions and/or venues.

One possibility is that BBC America made a strategic decision to showcase only the most exciting matches to gauge interest for this type of programming here in America. Since Scotland and Italy consistently finish at the bottom of the Six Nations tables, it makes sense to omit these teams. In addition, the matches chosen for broadcast are historically exciting contests.

Whatever the reason for the limited-yet-live coverage of the Six Nations, us colonials should feel quite content with this welcome development of increased rugby coverage. I challenge all our readers to contact both BBC America and your local TV provider and ask for more!

In addition, I’ve started this online petition to forward to BBC America and BBC Canada once all of the matches above have been aired.

http://bit.ly/rugbyontv

If enough people send their support, maybe we’ll get more rugby internationals and maybe even some domestic rugby on TV.

For starters, the annual USA Sevens tournament (Feb 13 & 14, 2010 in Las Vegas) deserves full, live coverage in the coming years. At least then I can watch two full days of live international rugby from my living room and won’t have to leave my wife back in Badgerland on Valentines Day

Well, I should start by saying that a detailed analysis of Pool B is (i) totally unnecessary as Australia and Wales will undoubtedly advance to the quarter finals and (ii) I’m in Paris at the moment on Day 2 of RWC 2007 and simply don’t have time to write a lenghtly analysis.

The one thing that sets this pool apart from Pool A and Pool D is the fact that Australia is guaranteed to finish at the top, with Wales following in second place. Everyone else is fighting for respect. Fiji and Canada (ranked 12th and 13th respectively) both want the #3 position, and their clash on Sep. 16th is the must-see game of the Pool. Win or lose, Canada must show up strong for their match against 18th-ranked Japan on Sep. 25th for the world to know that the canucks are truly developing their rugby chops.

Let’s go Canada, make you’re mark and soon you’ll be breaking into rugby’s top-10!

Add to that their worldwide recognition of the Haka ritual (the subject of my next blog) to ruggers and non-ruggers alike and the All Blacks are favored by many to finally hoist the Webb Ellis Cup which has eluded them since the inception of the Rugby World Cup in 1987.

Contrary to popular belief, I think All Blacks PR machine may have gotten a little ahead of itself. These last few weeks have been very revealing for the All Blacks, despite back-to-back wins over Canada and South Africa. Let’s analyze each of these.

Canada is currently ranked 13th in the world and, after a slight drop in the world rankings in the Spring of 2006, has shown the most subtle signs of upward mobility to keep scratching at the doorstep of a top-10 ranking. Of course these details mean little when facing top-rated New Zealand on their home turf. While the final score of 64-13 was expected, the half-time result of 26-13 for the home team was embarrassing for the All Blacks and a huge victory for the visiting Canadians. The Canadians defense rebuked many well-orchestrated moves by the match favorites and visibly frustrated the All Blacks who seemed shocked by resilience of their opponents. Herein lies the rub: how can the best team in the world get frustrated by a Tier 3 team?

The very next week on June 23, New Zealand faced South Africa in what many consider to be a preview of the 2007 Rugby World Cup final. The first half of this match, as with the Canadians, was a struggle for the traveling All Blacks with South Africa enjoying much of the ball. Particularly telling was the ability of the Springboks to disrupt the All Black lineout (and thus shut down the visitors best opportunity for wide open attack and set pieces) and the bizarre kicking errors by New Zealand’s superstar fly-half Dan Carter. The half-time score was dead-locked at 6-a-piece. With just 12 minutes remaining, the Boks had gained an advantage of 21-12 and the visibly shaken All Blacks were allowing their discipline and game plan to deteriorate.

To their credit, New Zealand executed two clinical tries in the remaining minutes to snatch victory from their hosts but the cracks in their amour had already been exposed. If South Africa had a healthy squad to select from (5 back row players were injured and unavailable for the match) and hadn’t lost fly-half Butch James in the final quarter, I suspect New Zealand would be thinking hard about their status in the rugby world and maybe even hoping (as opposed to assuming) that they will be raising the Web Ellis Cup come October 20th.