Commentators

A great days rugby yesterday on TV, but who gets the worst commentator/pundit award. Got to be between Jiffy and Eddie Butler. My vote would go to Jiffy

Martin Williams. For saying after the Wales game yesterday. that Wales have won the 6ns trophy. for the amount of points they scored.

OhhhhhhhhhhhHow wrong he was.

Eddie Butler is probably the best.

majesticimperialman wrote:Martin Williams. For saying after the Wales game yesterday. that Wales have won the 6ns trophy. for the amount of points they scored.

OhhhhhhhhhhhHow wrong he was.

oh dear!

Higher_Ground wrote:Eddie Butler is probably the best.

george doors wrote:              

Higher_Ground wrote:Eddie Butler is probably the best.

It's probably worth pointing out (or not, depending on how intelligent people are) that there is no right/wrong answer here. It's purely down to personal preference.

Higher_Ground wrote:

george doors wrote:              

Higher_Ground wrote:Eddie Butler is probably the best.

It's probably worth pointing out (or not, depending on how intelligent people are) that there is no right/wrong answer here. It's purely down to personal preference.

Well I am highly intelligent and think that education is important but rugby is more importanter

Eddie Butler is terrible.

The gloss has come off Moore too as he just can't stop moaning, he is so Frak negative and self righteous!

But still butler and his wannabe poetry just destroys the game for me. And his stupid ore match carp he cones up with.

?

majesticimperialman wrote:Martin Williams. For saying after the Wales game yesterday. that Wales have won the 6ns trophy. for the amount of points they scored.

OhhhhhhhhhhhHow wrong he was.

Are you sure about that? You misquoted Gatland yesterday, so I am not sure you are correct.

Butler was awful yesterday, from his over-pronounced French names (often corrected by Castaignede, though even Thomas gave up with " Roaaaari Ko-co") to mis-identifying players. I know they both had scrum caps on, but if you are unable to tell the difference between Haskell and Nowell you have a problem.

I think it was Butler who was calling Liam Williams, George North last week (as did the guy yesterday). Also, he does have a habit of over-pronouncing the French names yes.

The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Risca Rev wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Martin Williams. For saying after the Wales game yesterday. that Wales have won the 6ns trophy. for the amount of points they scored.

OhhhhhhhhhhhHow wrong he was.

Are you sure about that? You misquoted Gatland yesterday, so I am not sure you are correct.

Not half as wrong as the England T shirt makers ..... another job lot of 2015 Champions shirts in the incinerator I wager

LondonTiger wrote:Butler was awful yesterday, from his over-pronounced French names (often corrected by Castaignede, though even Thomas gave up with " Roaaaari Ko-co") to mis-identifying players. I know they both had scrum caps on, but if you are unable to tell the difference between Haskell and Nowell you have a problem.

Did he make that mistake? Oh dear.

On scrumcaps............... every wearer seems to play about 15% more abrasively than a non wearer.  Perhaps they should be compulsory?

I don't think I can sit through another overblown Butler narrated montage. We've reached peak Butler.

Think of us Welsh, Notch. We have constant Butler on Scrum V and pigging Sean Holley on every Welsh related programme nowadays.

Not over-pronounced French names so much as correctly pronounced ones. EB was, after all, in another incarnation a French teacher at, I think, Cheltenham College.

Smart bloke and I think a very good commentator. Even St Bill of McLaren could be a bit over-poetic at times and EB's way is infinitely preferable to most of his contemporaries, with the possible exception of Cotter, who I think is extremely capable in any of the sports to which he turns his hand in the commentary box.

Of the summarisers, I still like Moore and Matthews who are happy enough to call things as they see them. The rest are much of a muchness - an extremely forgettable muchness. Nicol possibly the worst but he has stiff competition from the studio pundits, who are uniformly banal in their utterances.

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Apparently 10 million people watched the finale yesterday. Rugby needs the game to remain on the BBC. More money for less exposure isn't a good enough trade off.

Yes, I can hardly wait for Harrison, Barnes and the rest of the over-excitable, lowest-common-denominator mob on Sky to take their turn again.

The Daily Mail made flesh, that lot.

captain carrantuohil wrote:Not over-pronounced French names so much as correctly pronounced ones. EB was, after all, in another incarnation a French teacher at, I think, Cheltenham College.

I'm sorry captain but I remember a French teacher of mine years ago who laughed that she was considered a Fluent French speaker in Ireland but actual French people in France couldn't ever understand a word she said!

Just be careful what you wish for, that's all I'll say, Secret. If Miles Harrison gets the gig again, the Peter principle will be in the best health of its existence.

Oh I'm not in the 'Get rid of Butler - or indeed Inverdale - but then I've given up looking at the BEEB coverage. I used to zip over and back between BBC and RTE, now I don't bother.

But I just find Butler's poetry sessions funny - not a reason to ban him! Clarkson would lose all his current anti-hero status if that happened

Not only did Butler mistake Nowell for Haskell (JN making a tackle on his wing), he also mistook Robshaw for Marler when CR was chasing after a charge down.

And of course a few years ago there was the continual mis-identification of Robshaw as Croft.

Have to say that the i-player is a great invention: I can start watching delayed 15 minutes, missing all the pre-match carp, and then skim through the half time nonsense and be back to watching pretty much live in the 2nd half. OK, it reduces the drinking game possibilities, but that's no bad thing...

The best thing Scotland Have in the tournament is Andrew Cotter. Says a lot!!!

Notch wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Apparently 10 million people watched the finale yesterday. Rugby needs the game to remain on the BBC. More money for less exposure isn't a good enough trade off.

10 Million viewers = MONEY MONEY MONEY to big TV companies. The Beebs days are numbered.

It's called Progress Notch!

This is how the Culture Vulture Satelite guys work. Let everyone else do the years and years of growth and product placement work and collect the sponsorship interest, then come in. take over, kill the audience but grow the price of ICELAND ad breaks....

Nice.

Lovely product.

I refuse to believe Noa Nakaitaci is pronounced Noa Nakahatadi , no matter how much Butler tries to convince me

Don't want to kick the Scotts when their down but answer has to be Andy "dark horses" Nicol. Surely Scotland can field a better pundit than him?

offload wrote:Don't want to kick the Scotts when they're down but answer has to be Andy "dark horses" Nicol.  Surely Scotland can field a better pundit than him?

PS:  Don't find Matthews much better - always states the obvious and never brings any fresh insight.

yappysnap wrote:Eddie Butler is terrible.

The gloss has come off Moore too as he just can't stop moaning, he is so Frak negative and self righteous!

But still butler and his wannabe poetry just destroys the game for me. And his stupid ore match carp he cones up with.

That's my favourite song on Trout Mask Replica.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Eddie Butler is terrible.

The gloss has come off Moore too as he just can't stop moaning, he is so Frak negative and self righteous!

But still butler and his wannabe poetry just destroys the game for me. And his stupid ore match carp he cones up with.

That's my favourite song on Trout Mask Replica.

Always good to see a Beefheart reference!

Andy Nicol should be replaced by Paterson (although he seems to be sneaking his way into commetary!)

the worst at the weekend was by far martyn williams who started laughing when Wales started running in tries!

I don't care how passionate he is, as a commentator you should be professional enough not to laugh at another team like that!

I think Jiffy gets a bad deal on here, I find him quite knowledgeable on the game and he explains quite a lot during the game as well, and he will say it as it is. I love his "Right, what we've got here, if you just wind it back a bit" lines where he tells you who should be standing where and who should be defending what, ok he might have a bit of a high pitch voice, but his understanding of the game is second to none.

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Don't want to spoil your day, but Inverdale has been signed by ITV for their RWC coverage.

The good side is that they have Dayglo, Wilko, Billy Whiz and not so good SCW.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Don't want to spoil your day, but Inverdale has been signed by ITV for their RWC coverage.

The good side is that they have Dayglo, Wilko, Billy Whiz and not so good SCW.

Christ, are they going to have any Welsh, Scottish or Irish people on board ? I can see it now, everyone and their dog predicting an England win before a ball has been kicked.

tigertattie wrote:Andy Nicol should be replaced by Paterson (although he seems to be sneaking his way into commetary!)

the worst at the weekend was by far martyn williams who started laughing when Wales started running in tries!

I don't care how passionate he is, as a commentator you should be professional enough not to laugh at another team like that!

I'd be very surprised if we was laughing at Italy. I suspect he was maybe laughing because some of the scores were very nice and pretty long range and pretty unwarrenball like (particularly the one where we went pretty much coast to Coast).

LordDowlais wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Don't want to spoil your day, but Inverdale has been signed by ITV for their RWC coverage.

The good side is that they have Dayglo, Wilko, Billy Whiz and not so good SCW.

Christ, are they going to have any Welsh, Scottish or Irish people on board ? I can see it now, everyone and their dog predicting an England win before a ball has been kicked.

http://www.itv.com/rugbyworldcup/itv-announce-line-up-for-2015-rugby-world-cup

Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Robinson and the coach who led them to that famous victory, Sir Clive Woodward, will all be studio pundits for the tournament.

Former scrum-half George Gregan, who skippered Australia that day and also played in the victorious 1999 Wallabies side, is also part of ITV's line-up.

Former Wales and Ireland skippers Gareth Thomas and Brian O'Driscoll will also be involved in the coverage, which will be led by presenter John Inverdale.

Former British and Irish Lions and Scotland coach Sir Ian McGeechan, victorious 1995 South Africa captain Francois Pienaar, New Zealand's Sean Fitzpatrick, Australia's Michael Lynagh, former England international David Flatman and England Women World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi complete the list of pundits.

Craig Doyle and Mark Durden-Smith will also be presenters for the tournament. Joining them with a wealth of experience in the commentary box will be Nick Mullins, Miles Harrison, Jon Champion, Martin Gillingham and Simon Ward, plus co-commentators Geordan Murphy, Scott Hastings, Shane Williams and Ben Kay.

Bringing viewers all the latest developments from in and around the venues will be reporters Jill Douglas, Martin Bayfield, Fran Donovan and Gabriel Clarke.

So, plentiful diversity of nationalities.

Having re-watched the England v France game, I have to apologise to Butler, as the mis-identification of Robshaw for Marler was by Moore (wasn't a charge down either but on chasing a loose ball).

The worst news is that they'll be using Shane Williams. As brilliant a player as he was, he's dull as ditchwater as a pundit. I've never heard him say anything that wasn't blindingly obvious.

Risca Rev wrote:

tigertattie wrote:Andy Nicol should be replaced by Paterson (although he seems to be sneaking his way into commetary!)

the worst at the weekend was by far martyn williams who started laughing when Wales started running in tries!

I don't care how passionate he is, as a commentator you should be professional enough not to laugh at another team like that!

I'd be very surprised if we was laughing at Italy. I suspect he was maybe laughing because some of the scores were very nice and pretty long range and pretty unwarrenball like (particularly the one where we went pretty much coast to Coast).

He wasn't laughing when Italy scored thier long ranger!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:The worst news is that they'll be using Shane Williams. As brilliant a player as he was, he's dull as ditchwater as a pundit. I've never heard him say anything that wasn't blindingly obvious.

Isn't that another way of saying you agree with everything he says?

LondonTiger wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:The beeb will lose the rights soon so no more Eddie, Brian, jiffy, Jerry, Keith, Andy or the worst of the lot Mr inverdale. Not all bad news them

Don't want to spoil your day, but Inverdale has been signed by ITV for their RWC coverage.

The good side is that they have Dayglo, Wilko, Billy Whiz and not so good SCW.

Christ, are they going to have any Welsh, Scottish or Irish people on board ? I can see it now, everyone and their dog predicting an England win before a ball has been kicked.

http://www.itv.com/rugbyworldcup/itv-announce-line-up-for-2015-rugby-world-cup

Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Robinson and the coach who led them to that famous victory, Sir Clive Woodward, will all be studio pundits for the tournament.

Former scrum-half George Gregan, who skippered Australia that day and also played in the victorious 1999 Wallabies side, is also part of ITV's line-up.

Former Wales and Ireland skippers Gareth Thomas and Brian O'Driscoll will also be involved in the coverage, which will be led by presenter John Inverdale.

Former British and Irish Lions and Scotland coach Sir Ian McGeechan, victorious 1995 South Africa captain Francois Pienaar, New Zealand's Sean Fitzpatrick, Australia's Michael Lynagh, former England international David Flatman and England Women World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi complete the list of pundits.

Craig Doyle and Mark Durden-Smith will also be presenters for the tournament. Joining them with a wealth of experience in the commentary box will be Nick Mullins, Miles Harrison, Jon Champion, Martin Gillingham and Simon Ward, plus co-commentators Geordan Murphy, Scott Hastings, Shane Williams and Ben Kay.

Bringing viewers all the latest developments from in and around the venues will be reporters Jill Douglas, Martin Bayfield, Fran Donovan and Gabriel Clarke.

So, plentiful diversity of nationalities.

Damn no Austen Healy

optimist wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:The worst news is that they'll be using Shane Williams. As brilliant a player as he was, he's dull as ditchwater as a pundit. I've never heard him say anything that wasn't blindingly obvious.

Isn't that another way of saying you agree with everything he says?

No, it's another way of saying he adds nothing.

Great reply, thanks

tigertattie wrote:

Risca Rev wrote:

tigertattie wrote:Andy Nicol should be replaced by Paterson (although he seems to be sneaking his way into commetary!)

the worst at the weekend was by far martyn williams who started laughing when Wales started running in tries!

I don't care how passionate he is, as a commentator you should be professional enough not to laugh at another team like that!

I'd be very surprised if we was laughing at Italy. I suspect he was maybe laughing because some of the scores were very nice and pretty long range and pretty unwarrenball like (particularly the one where we went pretty much coast to Coast).

He wasn't laughing when Italy scored thier long ranger!

no, but I'm laughing at the riposte!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:The worst news is that they'll be using Shane Williams. As brilliant a player as he was, he's dull as ditchwater as a pundit. I've never heard him say anything that wasn't blindingly obvious.

Have to agree, he looks bored, sounds bored and is well, boring