NBC Sports Airs Six Nations Rugby Starting Feb. 1

NBC Sports airs the 2019 Guinness Six Nations rugby championship, starting with France versus Wales live at 3 p.m. ET Feb. 1 on NBCSN. The match is in Paris.  

Coverage continues with a Saturday doubleheader starting with Scotland versus Italy in Edinburgh at 12:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, followed by defending champion Ireland taking on England in Dublin at 2:30 p.m. ET. Those are shown on delay, and are available live on streaming service NBC Sports Gold.

The Six Nations consists of 15 matches, as Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Wales and Italy face off in a round-robin. All matches stream live, and commercial-free, on NBC Sports Gold, which offers its rugby package for $69.99. Besides the Six Nations, it includes the Premiership and European Champions Cup.

NBC, NBCSN and CNBC provide linear coverage.

Leigh Diffey will anchor the opening weekend's coverage on NBCSN alongside analysts Alex Corbisiero, who played prop for England, and former U.S. rugby star Dan Lyle. Lyle was a football standout before taking up rugby. He played for English club Bath for seven seasons, and represented the U.S. team 45 times.

Ireland won the 2018 Six Nations, winning all five matches in the tournament. England won in 2016 and 2017 but finished in fifth last year, going 2-3.

The Six Nations dates back over a century. It was previously the Five Nations, with Italy joining in 2000.

NBC Sports has not shared the remainder of its Six Nations schedule. 

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.