Fans will now have the opportunity to see more of the top women’s international stars take to the pitch on RugbyPass TV with the addition of Allianz PWR which boasts some of the leading talents from across the world. The club competition, which launched its 2023/24 season in the November will run until 1 June, 2024 with one match per round broadcast live on the streaming platform.
The women’s cross-border club competition, the Celtic Challenge which is organised by the IRFU, Scottish Rugby and WRU, with financial support from World Rugby, will also have every match available on the free-to-access platform when it kicks-off on 29 December. Returning for its second year, with an expanded format encompassing six teams, the competition will span an 11-week period until 3 March, 2024.
The Celtic Challenge provides a high-performance platform for young female players ahead of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations and bridges the gap between the domestic and international women’s games in the three Celtic nations.
Most recently, RugbyPass TV has streamed action from all three levels of the inaugural Women’s 15s tournament, WXV, around the world in over 150 countries, playing a lead role in the promotion, accessibility and impact of the tournament which launched in October this year. The men’s and women’s fixture from both HSBC SVNS in Dubai and South Africa were also showcased and will continue to be aired for free internationally for the rest of the series, anywhere where there is not a host broadcaster in place.
World Rugby Chief Marketing and Content Officer James Rothwell said: “We’re excited to continue to bolster our RugbyPass TV offering as we announce the addition of both PWR and Celtic Challenge to our platform.
“Driving global and diverse fan growth is key to our World Rugby objectives and so far, we’ve experienced huge take-up internationally with really positive engagement since launching RugbyPass TV. By bringing more tournaments such as these onto our platform, we will continue to drive visibility for the women’s game and make it more accessible than ever for fans around the globe to enjoy.”
Celtic Challenge Competition Manager Josh Payne added: “For fans to be able to watch every Celtic Challenge match on RugbyPass TV is a fantastic step in the development of the Competition.
“It further underlines our continued growth and ambition of providing players and teams with the best possible exposure and opportunity to compete in a high-performance rugby environment.”
RugbyPass TV, which launched ahead of Rugby World Cup 2023 was created to connect rugby fans across the globe more deeply with the game they love, for free. The platform blends unparalleled coverage of the world’s top events with exclusive behind the scenes, documentary and feature content produced by World Rugby Studios. Since its launch, the platform has attracted over 350,000 subscribers with a total of 1.7 million users around the world, giving rugby fans a place to watch new live and on-demand content.
