A new chapter for London Irish as they play their first match today at the Brentford Community Stadium. See if they can mark it in suitable style against the visiting Tigers
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch the Premiership match
“A momentous day” for London Irish, in the words of their director of rugby Declan Kidney, as the club play their first match at a new home after 20 years as tenants at Reading FC’s Madejski Stadium. The Brentford Community Stadium becomes the 39th venue to host a Gallagher Premiership fixture (kick-off 4.15pm).
Leicester get the honour of participating in Irish’s big day, a match that brings together the two lowliest sides of last season’s Premiership – if you take Saracens, with their huge points deduction, out of the equation.
Irish, in fact, have won just once in the past 12 rounds – 22-19 at Exeter on 30 September. They lost narrowly at Worcester in last weekend’s opening round of the 2020-21 season.
Leicester, who parted company with DoR Geordan Murphy a fortnight ago, thumped Gloucester 38-15 in round one but have not won successive Premiership matches since October 2018. Their most recent away win in any competition was at Calvisano in the European Challenge Cup last December.
No 8 Matt Rogerson captains Irish today as they begin a new chapter in their history. The front row of Allan Dell, Agustín Creevy and Sekope Kepu will be under pressure to put right the scrummaging problems that undermined Irish’s performance at Sixways.
New opportunity: Wallaby prop Sekope Kepu, in action v Bristol last month, starts this afternoon (Getty)
On the bench, there is a welcome return from injury for Steve Mafi, who hasn’t featured for the Exiles since before the 2019/20 season restart.
“Sunday is a momentous day for the club. The squad, the staff and the coaches are all delighted and proud to be involved in this stadium move,” said Kidney.
“We are a club with a 122-year history, so to be a part of the move is a real honour. It is now up to us to put in a performance on the pitch to remember the occasion by.”
Our. New. Home. ?#BackInTown pic.twitter.com/xOPiZVdPtv
— London Irish (@londonirish) November 29, 2020
Leicester welcome Matt Scott, Jordan Taufua and Nephi Leatigaga back to the match-day squad. Scotland centre Scott returns to the back-line as one of three changes to the starting line-up. Ryan Bower and Cyle Brink, a South African, join the pack after starting among the replacements a week ago. It will be back-row Brink’s first start for Tigers.
Head coach Steve Borthwick said: “London Irish are a good side with a very experienced coaching team and they’ll want to start well in their new stadium. We take our lessons from every game and our focus is on what we need to do to improve each week.”
Leicester have lost only one of their past eight fixtures with Irish – by 36-11 a year ago in Reading – and edged a low-calibre contest 13-7 when the clubs last met in August. You can remind yourself of what happened that day here.
London Irish: Tom Homer; Ben Loader, Curtis Rona, Billy Meakes, Ollie Hassell-Collins; Paddy Jackson, Ben Meehan; Allan Dell, Agustin Creevy, Sekope Kepu, George Nott, Andrei Mahu, Seán O’Brien, Blair Cowan, Matt Rogerson (capt).
Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Chunya Munga, 20 Steve Mafi, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Theo Brophy Clews, 23 Tom Parton.
Leicester: Freddie Steward; Kobus van Wyk, Jaco Taute, Matt Scott, Harry Potter; Zack Henry, Richard Wigglesworth; Ryan Bower, Tom Youngs (capt), Dan Cole, Harry Wells, Calum Green, Hanro Liebenberg, Cyle Brink, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 Nephi Leatigaga, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Tommy Reffell, 20 Jordan Taufua, 21 Ben White, 22 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 23 Guy Porter.
In the thick of it: Tigers locks Calum Green and Harry Wells in a maul against Gloucester (Getty Images)
Here’s how to find a reliable live stream for London Irish v Leicester wherever you are…
How to watch London Irish v Leicester from outside your country
If you’re abroad but still want to watch your local Premiership coverage, like London Irish v Leicester, you can do so by using a VPN – Virtual Private Network.
VPNs allow you to get around any geo-blocking by changing your IP address, so you appear in a different location and can watch the same legal Premiership live stream you would at home.
Our friends at TechRadar have tested hundreds of VPNs and recommend ExpressVPN. It’s easy to use, has strong security features and allows you to watch on several devices at once, including smart TVs and phones, iPads, tablets, PCs and Macs.
Plus, ExpressVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can try it out for a month for free or sign up for an annual plan and get three months free.
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch from the UK
London Irish v Leicester, which kicks off at 4.15pm today, will be shown live on BT Sport 2 in the UK. If you don’t have a BT contract but want to watch the match, don’t worry because you can still easily watch it online.
That’s because BT Sport has a contract-free monthly pass that allows you to get instant access to all four of their sport channels for just £25.
If you’re from the UK but are overseas when London Irish v Leicester takes place, you can get your normal live stream but you’ll need a VPN – see the information above.
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch from Europe
If you’re in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you can watch London Irish v Leicester (kick-off 5.15pm) through the live and on-demand streaming service DAZN.
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch from the USA
If you live in the States, the official broadcaster of Premiership matches is NBC, with matches streamed on NBC Sports Gold so you can watch them anytime and anywhere.
London Irish v Leicester will kick off at 11am EST and 8am on the West Coast.
The NBC Sports Gold Pass for rugby is $79.99 and includes coverage of the Gallagher Premiership, European Champions and Challenge Cups, and Guinness Six Nations.
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch from New Zealand
It’s little wonder that Sky Sport NZ, with ten sports channels, including one dedicated to rugby, is the rights-holder for Premiership matches in New Zealand.
If you want to tune in to London Irish v Leicester from the Land of the Long White Cloud, the match kicks off at 5.15am on Sky Sport NZ 1.
It costs $31.99 a month to add Sky Sport to your Sky Starter pack ($25.99) but if you sign up for 12 months before 31 January you’ll get your first month free. Plus, you’ll get Sky Go, which allows you to watch live rugby wherever you are.
London Irish v Leicester live stream: How to watch from South Africa
If you want to keep track of the many South Africans plying their trade in the Premiership, SuperSport shows matches in South Africa.
South Africa is one hour ahead of the UK, so London Irish v Leicester kicks off at 6.15pm on SuperSport Variety 1 and Grandstand.
There are various DStv packages giving access to SuperSport. They range from Access, which has the Blitz and Variety 4 channels, to Premium, which includes all 18 sports channels.
We recommend VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:
- Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service)
- Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad
We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Can’t get to the shops? You can download the digital edition of Rugby World straight to your tablet or subscribe to the print edition to get the magazine delivered to your door.
Follow Rugby World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.