The four free to air Gallagher Premiership games have been confirmed with only a few days to go until the season restarts. Robert Rees brings you the latest.
Free to air games
The matches that will be shown on Channel 5 this season are:
- Saturday 15 August (2pm) – Exeter Chiefs v Leicester Tigers
- Saturday 22 August (2pm) – London Irish v Northampton Saints
- Saturday 29 August (3pm) – Sale Sharks v Bristol Bears
- Saturday 5 September (2pm) – Harlequins v Bath Rugby
The matches selected to be shown on free-to-air start this Saturday when Premiership leaders Exeter Chiefs entertain Steve Borthwick’s Leicester Tigers at Sandy Park.
Five Premiership Rugby matches were shown on Channel 5 last season, gaining a combined TV audience of more than 2.6 million while the match between Harlequins and Leicester Tigers earlier this season was watched by a peak audience of 710,000.
Along with the FTA coverage BT Sport will be showing all other games and the ever-popular Channel 5 highlights show will also return on Monday 17 August at 7pm, presented by Mark Durden-Smith and David Flatman, showing all the action from Gallagher Premiership Rugby.
Gallagher Premiership restart
It’s been 159 days since the last game of Premiership rugby took place, a record for the longest gap between games, usually held with the summer break.
Exeter lead the way with 45 points, but the race for top four is still wide open with five clubs being within 10 points of the final play-of berth.
At the bottom Saracens, who are already relegated, will be focusing on their trip to Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Four players have amassed over a century of points this campaign: Marcus Smith leads the way with 126, followed by Callum Sheedy (122), Robert du Preez (116) and Rhys Priestland (111). The latter has scored almost half of Bath’s total points tally this season.
“Main photo credit”
