Fans maul Stan over streaming of Rugby World Cup bronze medal match

Nine Entertainment-owned streaming service Stan was hit with a barrage of complaints from sports fans after its broadcast of the Rugby World Cup bronze medal match.

Argentina’s Santiago Carreras scores against England in the Rugby World Cup bronze medal match. England won 26-23. Picture: Getty Images

Nine Entertainment-owned streaming service Stan was hit with a barrage of complaints from sports fans on the weekend after its broadcast during the Rugby World Cup was affected by a series of issues during the showdown.

The match between England and Argentina – which was broadcast from 5.45am AEDT on Saturday – was aired on Stan Sport, which has been promoted as the home of rugby and the place to watch every match of the tournament.

However, shortly after the broadcast began many viewers flooded social media with complaints, with some disgruntled viewers describing Stan’s airing of the match as “awful coverage”.

Stan’s social media accounts including Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, were filled with grievances from frustrated fans who could not watch the match without being impacted by a series of disruptions.

One fan wrote on Facebook, “Awful coverage! Freezing and pausing through the whole game. At one stage the game wouldn’t even play showing error code A17. Sort out before the final Stan Sport Rugby.” Another disgruntled viewer wrote, “Stan Sport Rugby streaming stopped just after halftime.

“Terrible timing for platform issues just before the Rugby World Cup final weekend.”

Another viewer wrote on X, “Stan Sport – please ask your audio engineers to mix your presenters’ mics better.

“Two of them are cracking/distorting. Turn up the fader volume.”

Stan Sport replied to the aggrieved viewer by simply stating, “We’ll pass your feedback on this onto the team.”

Stan Sport was announced as the home of Rugby World Cup last year and at the time, the streaming service’s chief executive Martin Kugeler said, “There is no better place to showcase one of the biggest events in global sport”.