RLWC 2013

[Acidmouse]

RL is run by some of the worst people imaginable, clueless on every level. No surprise at the eventual TV coverage.

Mel Meninga has a kid in seacroft Leeds, no doubt from a trip here whilst playing RL.

[BulldozerD]

part of the reason its not on normal tv, no one will watch most the games.

Apparently SKY bid to show all games but wouldn't share the headline games with BBC, so the RFL went for a package where the main attractions were on free-to-air TV.
What is "normal TV" these days, does it include SKY?

I don't think it does

I don't think it helps that the BBC cover RL so appallingly compared to Sky

I am of course a RU fan but find RL on the BBC very tricky to watch

- Clare Balding is a great broadcaster but its just wrong to see her do RL. Maybe if they had a three day event in the car park or something

- Ray French's commentary style is very outdated


I think Sky do a far better job, but I expect thats resources and commitment to the sport.



On a seperate issue, when I was a lad I remember watching the Aus team of Mal Meninga come over here. What a team that was. Is this Australian team a good one? Who would I be looking out for for their skills etc?

This Aussie team is a good one and so is the NZ team.
I agree fully that the BBC presentation is poor and I think they are more likely to use other commentators instead of Ray French. I also hope they use Jonathan Davies sparingly as his commentary/insight is woeful (this not me being biased because of his union connection, nor because of his accent). However I am prepared to give the BBC a chance here to see how they do. I think Balding was lost to the BBC when she went to do racing on CH4, but I actually think she did ok.

The commentary team on SKY is old and tired, they should have been replaced 5 years ago - both Eddie and Stevo are well past their sell-by-date. At certain points I am amazed Stevo actually played the game, the bloke has lost it. Must admit I lost interest in watching a lot of SKY games last year.

Off the top of my head, the main 3 people I would look for in the main teams are as follows:
Australia - Greg Inglis (centre/fullback), Billy Slater (Fullback), Johnathan Thurston (stand-off)
NZ - Sonny Bill Williams (Second Row), Shaun Johnson (scrum half), Jared Warea-Hargreaves
Eng - Sam Burgess (Prop/Loose Forward), Sam Tomkins (full back), George Burgess (Prop)

There are quite a few "champion" players in the NZ/Aus teams but these are the ones most likely to catch eye imo. When thinking of Meninga, think of Inglis as the modern equivalent. About 6'4" and 17st and was schoolboy 400m champion, with all the skills to match.

[tikay]

part of the reason its not on normal tv, no one will watch most the games.

Apparently SKY bid to show all games but wouldn't share the headline games with BBC, so the RFL went for a package where the main attractions were on free-to-air TV.
What is "normal TV" these days, does it include SKY?

I don't think it does

I don't think it helps that the BBC cover RL so appallingly compared to Sky

I am of course a RU fan but find RL on the BBC very tricky to watch

- Clare Balding is a great broadcaster but its just wrong to see her do RL. Maybe if they had a three day event in the car park or something

- Ray French's commentary style is very outdated


I think Sky do a far better job, but I expect thats resources and commitment to the sport.



On a seperate issue, when I was a lad I remember watching the Aus team of Mal Meninga come over here. What a team that was. Is this Australian team a good one? Who would I be looking out for for their skills etc?

This Aussie team is a good one and so is the NZ team.
I agree fully that the BBC presentation is poor and I think they are more likely to use other commentators instead of Ray French. I also hope they use Jonathan Davies sparingly as his commentary/insight is woeful (this not me being biased because of his union connection, nor because of his accent). However I am prepared to give the BBC a chance here to see how they do. I think Balding was lost to the BBC when she went to do racing on CH4, but I actually think she did ok.

The commentary team on SKY is old and tired, they should have been replaced 5 years ago - both Eddie and Stevo are well past their sell-by-date. At certain points I am amazed Stevo actually played the game, the bloke has lost it. Must admit I lost interest in watching a lot of SKY games last year.

Off the top of my head, the main 3 people I would look for in the main teams are as follows:
Australia - Greg Inglis (centre/fullback), Billy Slater (Fullback), Johnathan Thurston (stand-off)
NZ - Sonny Bill Williams (Second Row), Shaun Johnson (scrum half), Jared Warea-Hargreaves
Eng - Sam Burgess (Prop/Loose Forward), Sam Tomkins (full back), George Burgess (Prop)

There are quite a few "champion" players in the NZ/Aus teams but these are the ones most likely to catch eye imo. When thinking of Meninga, think of Inglis as the modern equivalent. About 6'4" and 17st and was schoolboy 400m champion, with all the skills to match.

I agree with that entirely.

Shame really, it just needs freshening up, & it could be marvellous for RL if they did.  Given the choice, I swerve watching it, as they are so cheesy & predictable. And that bloody music that accompanies a T R Y.......

[Acidmouse]

I think they are slowly bringing in new blood, 4-5 co commentators now in place ready to take over.  Shame there all Wigan biased.

You know how big RL is in NZ and Aussie as some of their players have £1m+ twitter followers, unheard of here.

[horseplayer]

rarely watch rl on sky (or anywere for that matter) but watched a game fairly recently.

Agree entirely with comments on commentary same old sayings from when i last watched 5/6 years ago very tiresome and all seemed a bit comfy

[tikay]

I think they are slowly bringing in new blood, 4-5 co commentators now in place ready to take over.  Shame there all Wigan biased.

You know how big RL is in NZ and Aussie as some of their players have £1m+ twitter followers, unheard of here.

It is only the new blood that enables me to watch it on Sky, I agree, some of them are just the job.

[Skippy]

I doubt Ray French will be doing much of it-I think he's retired. Dave Woods is the main BBC RL man now, and I like him.

Eddie and Stevo are strange- lots of people are supposed to like them, but I've never met any of them. They are meant to appeal to the like of Tikay and horseplayer- occasional RL viewers who are outside of the hardcore audience. If they don't even do that, then they are sunk.

Claire Balding was excellent.

[BulldozerD]

I think they are slowly bringing in new blood, 4-5 co commentators now in place ready to take over.  Shame there all Wigan biased.

You know how big RL is in NZ and Aussie as some of their players have £1m+ twitter followers, unheard of here.

I subscribed to premier sports last season just to watch the NRL (let's face it you wouldn't subscribe for anything else on there), I wasn't disappointed by the standard of games, nor the standard of commentary you get from people who do it properly plus recently retired great players.

The standard and intensity of the NRL play-off games was different gravy to any other sport I have watched recently. One game ended 4-0 but I was engrossed throughout as it was constant pressure on either line.

The recent $1bn TV deal they have down under is the main reason that the likes of Sam Tomkins etc are going over there, rather than going to union in the UK, and that there are no decent Aussies coming over here anymore unless they are damaged in some way.

Unfortunately RL over here is behind in terms of standard of play and presentation and we are relying on a few of our top players to really shine when it matters for us to have a chance. However, some of my best live sporting experiences have been when England/GB have been playing internationals against Aus/NZ so getting to as many games as I can.

Don't really see the Wigan bias at all on the SKY commentary team, they cream themselves just as much over Leeds/Warrington etc at other times.

[AndrewT]

You have to remember that, despite RL's continued efforts, it's still a regional game only really played in two parts of two countries.

I find the coverage parochial but then it's not aimed at me and really shouldn't be either - RL had its go at becoming a major world sport and nothing happened. Union expanded its reach into more countries (Argentina now a major power, Italy getting there and growing quickly in USA & Japan) leaving League really nowhere to go.

[tikay]

I doubt Ray French will be doing much of it-I think he's retired. Dave Woods is the main BBC RL man now, and I like him.

Eddie and Stevo are strange- lots of people are supposed to like them, but I've never met any of them. They are meant to appeal to the like of Tikay and horseplayer- occasional RL viewers who are outside of the hardcore audience. If they don't even do that, then they are sunk.

Claire Balding was excellent.

Nailed it. I am that man, & I WANT to get interested in the game, but I'd rather like the commentary team to treat me as a grown up.

I'll never have a deep interest in it, but I can barely watch when those two are doing their thing. Their ad-libs & one-liners remain identical to 5 or 6 years ago. It's like listening to a RL version of Dale Winton. An original line must not be spoken, OK?

[Acidmouse]

You have to remember that, despite RL's continued efforts, it's still a regional game only really played in two parts of two countries.

I find the coverage parochial but then it's not aimed at me and really shouldn't be either - RL had its go at becoming a major world sport and nothing happened. Union expanded its reach into more countries (Argentina now a major power, Italy getting there and growing quickly in USA & Japan) leaving League really nowhere to go.

Problem is the people in charge are obsessed with expanding the game when there is no need. Develop the game where its popular and stop spreading out too thin. London should close down and let another Northern club flourish before the promotion/relation comes back into force.

[BulldozerD]

Nailed it. I am that man, & I WANT to get interested in the game, but I'd rather like the commentary team to treat me as a grown up.

I'll never have a deep interest in it, but I can barely watch when those two are doing their thing. Their ad-libs & one-liners remain identical to 5 or 6 years ago. It's like listening to a RL version of Dale Winton. An original line must not be spoken, OK?

I think you have it spot on and am glad someone outside the RL fanbase has said this. Exactly what I think.
Eddie thinks he is on a mission to tell everyone how good the product is and why they should be watching but he frequently highlights the wrong stuff. Just let people watch the game and make their own minds up FFS.

[tikay]

Nailed it. I am that man, & I WANT to get interested in the game, but I'd rather like the commentary team to treat me as a grown up.

I'll never have a deep interest in it, but I can barely watch when those two are doing their thing. Their ad-libs & one-liners remain identical to 5 or 6 years ago. It's like listening to a RL version of Dale Winton. An original line must not be spoken, OK?

I think you have it spot on and am glad someone outside the RL fanbase has said this. Exactly what I think.
Eddie thinks he is on a mission to tell everyone how good the product is and why they should be watching but he frequently highlights the wrong stuff. Just let people watch the game and make their own minds up FFS.

Yup. I don't need "what a great game RL is", I need a bit more honesty, almost as Neville has done so well (imo) with their Football coverage, which has moved on enormously since Gray & Keys.

[Skippy]

Nailed it. I am that man, & I WANT to get interested in the game, but I'd rather like the commentary team to treat me as a grown up.

I'll never have a deep interest in it, but I can barely watch when those two are doing their thing. Their ad-libs & one-liners remain identical to 5 or 6 years ago. It's like listening to a RL version of Dale Winton. An original line must not be spoken, OK?

I think you have it spot on and am glad someone outside the RL fanbase has said this. Exactly what I think.
Eddie thinks he is on a mission to tell everyone how good the product is and why they should be watching but he frequently highlights the wrong stuff. Just let people watch the game and make their own minds up FFS.

Yup. I don't need "what a great game RL is", I need a bit more honesty, almost as Neville has done so well (imo) with their Football coverage, which has moved on enormously since Gray & Keys.

You won't get "honesty" from Sky Sports. Their number one aim every month with all sports is to tell you how brilliant it all is and you must not, you hear me, must not, even countenance the thought of cancelling your subscription. They never describe any event they are covering as "a poor game", "a waste of time", "forgone conclusion", etc.

Rugby League is a good piece of business for Sky Sports though- I think it draws money for them in excess of the money it costs to televise it, which apart from football is pretty rare for them.

[Longy]

Must admit my interest in Rugby league has waned in the last few years, due to the standard of play and coverage in this country. My interest has been reignited somewhat by spending sometime in Australia earlier in the year, the NRL really produces some great rugby and the passion for the game in NSW and Queensland is bigger than any other sport over there.