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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

Wales' opening autumn international versus France to be shown free-to-air as ITV4 revealed as broadcaster

Wales' opening autumn international against France will be broadcast on ITV4.

An official announcement is yet to be made on the English-language broadcaster for Wales' clash against France in Paris next Saturday - with S4C already confirmed to have Welsh-language rights.

But TV listings for next weekend have shown that ITV4 will screen the October 24 match - with those involved understood to be awaiting final confirmation on broadcast plans.

It follows the announcement that ITV4 will broadcast Scotland's first autumn international against Georgia.

ITV4's coverage of France v Wales will begin at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick-off.

Mark Pougatch is listed as the presenter for the game, with analysis set to be provided by former Wales internationals Gareth Thomas and James Hook, and commentary by Martin Gillingham and Shane Williams.

This will be the fourth different English-language channel that Wales' autumn matches will be broadcast on - and the third free-to-air.

Following the France match on ITV4, BBC will show the rearranged Six Nations clash with Scotland the following week.

Channel 4 have the rights for Wales' opening Autumn Nations Cup fixture against Ireland on November 13.

The following Autumn Nations Cup matches will then be available on subscription service Amazon Prime.

All of the matches will be available as well on S4C.

The match against France looks like it will go ahead despite a few sticking points threatening it in the past couple of weeks.

For starters, French president Emmanuel Macron has announced a curfew will be introduced, ordering people to stay inside their homes after 9pm - the exact time the Wales game is due to kick off. A state of emergency in the country has been declared.

There had also been a dispute between the French Rugby Federation and Top 14 clubs that had threatened the game, but that looks to have reached a resolution.

French clubs were refusing to release their players, arguing the six-game international scheduled was unacceptable.

At one stage it even looked like France may have to field a team of U20s and second division players.

But L'Equipe now report a compromise will see France select two squads of 31 players for the six matches this autumn, with one group playing the first three matches and the other playing the second three.

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