We moved recently to Vietnam for a year and luckily for us discovered a website called RugbyPass in the first few weeks of being in Ho Chi Minh.
We had been to a bar here in Ho Chi Minh called Phatty’s Sports Bar and Grill and they had the Cowboys playing Broncos on the big screen behind the main bar.
Phatty’s also had AFL on to on a few of the smaller TV’s around the place.
While I am at it we took the kids to Phatty’s and it wasn’t too bad a place to watch games if you are desperate for some football.
They do smoke inside so that was a bit of a drag (insert nose laugh), but other than that it was a great experience.
I took some photos and noticed the RugbyPass logo on the screen and thought to myself, I wonder if we can get this on too.
So the investigation started.
What is RugbyPass?
Obviously the first place to look is Google search and if you type in RugbyPass they come up as the number one in search.
RugbyPass is a website for rugby and rugby league fans in Asia where you pay to stream rugby and rugby league.
So this means you get to watch Test Matches, the Rugby Championship, Super Rugby, NRL, State of Origin, NRL Finals and more.
The good thing is that you can either watch it live or on demand whenever you want.
What countries does it cover?
If you live in Asia you can pay for the RugbyPass service.
We are in Vietnam, as I have said, so it has been awesome so far to watch games in peace after the kids have gone to bed.
Here is a list of the countries where you can stream RugbyPass.
- Banglades
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- East Timor
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- And of course, Vietnam
If your IP is logging on from outside of these countries you won’t be able to stream the games.
How much does RugbyPass cost?
I had a quick look around on pricing for the site and also had a look at the different subscriptions too.
There is a couple of options for RugbyPass and I noticed now from when I went to subscribe it has changed again.
Not is pricing though, more the layout of their site which was a bit confusing.
There was only one option showing for a year subscription and it took me a while to find the monthly.
Now I notice they have the options clear, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
- Weekly subscription to RugbyPass $7.99 US
- Monthly subscription to RugbyPass $19.99 US
- Yearly subscription to RugbyPass $159.99 US
Here is the math for you, just to save you a bit of time and so you can see how much you are saving.
- Weekly = $7.99 x 52 Weeks = $415.48 US
- Monthly = $19.99 x 12 = $239.88 US•
- Yearly = $159.99 / 12 = $13.33 US
We worked out that we would only need the service for the duration of the NRL season.
This let us watch all of the Warriors, Cowboys, State of Origin, and NRL Grand Final games as well as letting me to watch the Chiefs and the All Blacks too (and the Wallabies if I am desperate).
So we will be using it for 8 months and this would have cost us $159.92 US.
But wait, that’s not all….
I was looking around Reddit the other day and I found a discount code for the service which takes a further 25% off for us!
So this brings in the season for us at $119.92 US.
No too bad really, while we are away for a year we can watch the football on the weekends easily.
Sign me up!
Signing up for RugbyPass is pretty effortless really and it works as soon as your payment does.
- Go to the “Sign Up Now” page
- Create an Account with your Name, Email and Password
- Pick your plan
- Pay with Credit Card or Paypal
- Wait for confirmation
- Login and start watching!
You do get the odd email from RugbyPass after signing up, these are just seeing how you are going and also news of matches coming up.
How do we watch?
First is the setup, is the laptop charged and Apple TV plugged in and ready to go.
I sign in with the laptop from the RugbyPass front page and then it takes you to the Watching Home Page.
It has all the games currently Live here as well as the Played, and the Upcoming games too.
From here you can also access More Past Games if you haven’t logged in for a while and also the Full Schedule to see everything.
Easy!
To play a game it is as easy as clicking on the green circle play button in the middle of the teams.
RugbyPass then prompts you to pick between Full Game and Condensed.
Click on one of these and it will take you to a screen that loads and then your game starts.
For me after this, I click on the Apple AirPlay logo at the top right of the laptop screen, wait for it to put the laptop screen on the TV, then hit the Full Screen logo at the bottom of the RugbyPass window.
Boom Shakalaka, we have it on full screen on the home TV!
While I am at it too, if you do want to watch games that have already been played you have to go to the Full Schedule page.
At the top of this page you will see under the word Schedule the week’s dates and two arrows.
Click on these arrows to go either forward or backwards to find the game you want.
How is the quality?
The quality isn’t too bad at all and if it does get a bit glitchy, it is bearable.
I’ve noticed during peak usage time for our building (Saturday nights) it can be a little glitchy every now and then.
But most of the time it is good and gives us a great experience.
It might be glitchy for us too having to run to the computer, then through the Apple TV before it finally hits the TV screen.
Time difference for games
If you want to watch live in Vietnam like we are doing the games are on early, 3 hours earlier to be exact.
So a lot of the games start mid to late afternoon generally for the NRL and Super Rugby.
But the great thing with RugbyPass is you can watch the games whenever you want to.
If you finish work and keep off Social Media you can watch the game like it’s live.
Should I get RugbyPass?
If you love watching rugby and rugby league and you reside in Asia, why not I say!
The price isn’t too bad and you can just get it on for the time you are there if you are there for work.
You can watch on many different devices too, so if you only have your phone with you, you can watch.
So I would recommend RugbyPass to anyone I talk to, it’s well worth it!
Now if they can only get the rights to this in Australia too….
