Where to watch NRL (rugby league) in Australia

Ah, football. The seemingly descriptive word that’s unfortunately quite ambiguous in Australia. It could refer to the accurate version of football (namely, soccer). Or it could be rugby union. Alternatively, it could be AFL.

Then there’s the “footy” shorthand that, at least for this writer, seems to be most used with the National Rugby League, or “NRL” to its mates. Scroll on for all of the best ways to watch NRL and other rugby league matches in Australia, including some of the best sports streaming services.

There are a few straightforward ways to watch NRL matches online in Australia. For a free option, start with 9Now. Sign up for a free account and stream three live matches for no cost during the NRL season. If you want to stream every match, you’ll either need a Kayo Sports account or Foxtel Now subscription with the Sport add-on.

Kayo Sports has a whole lot of live and on-demand sports content for a $25, $30 or $35 monthly fee. Basically, you pay more for access to additional HD streams: one, two and then up to three simultaneous streams. To watch NRL on Foxtel Now it’s a combo cost: $25 for the base plan (Essentials Pop or Lifestyle) then $29 on top for the Sport add-on, so a $54 monthly fee all in.

NRL isn’t the only rugby league content you’ll find on Foxtel programming, either. Here’s a full breakdown of all the Foxtel rugby league content:

• NRL Telstra Premiership (men’s and women’s)
• Super League
• Hostplus Queensland Cup
• Rugby Football League
• NSW Cup
• State of Origin (men’s and women’s)
• World Cup Challenge
• NRL All Stars
• Rugby League Internationals
• NRL Pre-Season Challenge
• Touch Football Australia
• Rugby League World Cup (men’s and women’s)

If you’re content with on-demand content, there are NRL highlights and full-match replays on the official NRL YouTube channel.

With the right virtual private network (VPN) service, there are other ways to watch NRL matches. Download the Watch NRL app for Android or iOS, then connect to a VPN server outside of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It costs $20 a week, $39 a month or $199 a year for NRL live streams and on-demand match replays. Try one of these VPNs for speedy global streaming:

• Windscribe VPN
• ExpressVPN
• PureVPN
• NordVPN
• Atlas VPN
• Proton VPN
• IPVanish VPN

Alternatively, connect to a VPN server in New Zealand and sign up for a Sky Sports Now account (there’s a seven-day trial). It costs NZ$20 per week, NZ$40 per month or NZ$400 per year to access NRL live streams. The VPNs below offer servers in New Zealand:

• Atlas VPN
• CyberGhost VPN
• ExpressVPN
• Hola VPN
• Hotspot Shield VPN
• IPVanish VPN
• Mullvad VPN
• NordVPN
• PrivadoVPN
• Private Internet Access VPN
• Proton VPN
• PureVPN
• Surfshark VPN
• TunnelBear VPN
• VPN Unlimited
• Windscribe

The other option for rugby league streaming is the UK version of Sky Sports; just connect to a UK VPN server. Sky Sports in the UK costs £25 per month (with a six-month contract). The VPNs below worked great with UK streaming in my tests:

• Windscribe
• ExpressVPN
• NordVPN
• Atlas VPN
• IPVanish
• PrivadoVPN
• Hola VPN
• CyberGhost VPN

One of those lists above suggests that Kayo Sports is where you can reliably stream the State of Origin each year. But there is a catch. If you want to watch the match live, use 9Now instead. Kayo Sports has replays of State of Origin matches from previous years, plus the upcoming matches will show after they play live on 9Now.

There’s a bit of a wait for the next Rugby League World Cup, which isn’t slated to kick off until 2025. For replays and highlights from the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, check in with Kayo Sports.

Interested to see how the streaming services above stack up against the competition? Take a look at the table below for a comparison of your streaming options in Australia.