Telegraph attacks Flats & Topsy

...In 2007, Sky Sports owned the rights to the Premiership...Stuart Barnes and Dewi Morris as pundits proved a canny double-act, with neither afraid of calling a spade a spade. The Rugby Club, a Thursday night highlights and review show, was essential viewing for any club-rugby fan.

There were highlights, interviews, analysis, opinion and, occasionally, the odd quirky feature. There were few shining lights, few gizmos and gimmicks; the highlights featured matchday commentary with no music backing – and they were extensive. In nuce, the rugby was allowed to do the talking and flourish. Sky Sports took the Premiership seriously and, therefore, the league took itself seriously. The knock-on effect was that fans took it seriously, too.

...Last week, our esteemed sports-on-television columnist, Alan Tyers, asked for some recommendations of regular rugby programmes... Given Rugby Tonight has now bit the dust, before replying, it seemed sensible to watch ITV’s highlights show with “Flats and Topsy” (David Flatman and Topsy Ojo).

It was the derby weekend, and the show left me flabbergasted, exasperated. Flatman and Ojo as presenters are smooth, and are clearly following higher orders, but the obsession with dad jokes – the Ant and Dec tribute act – and the persistent denigration of the derby weekend is endemic of English rugby’s wider issues. Of course, a sport needs to be humble enough to laugh at itself every now and again, but after last season, with three clubs going to the wall, if not even the presenters of the Premiership’s free-to-air highlights show are willing to take the league seriously, then why should anyone else? Why should the media? Why should the fans who pay their (increasingly vast) sums of money to watch the games?