Just because a lot of people in England don't like him, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Judging by the stir on social media and in the press the pictures would have gone down well in Argentina and other countries.
It's nothing to do with not liking him, I find him a comedic characteur these days, it's more concentrating on a has been rather than other Argentine fans, which there were a lot by the looks of it in Leicester, or even the reaction of the Argentine players themselves. Maybe once or even twice, but every time Argentina scored was excessive and rather sad to see a once great sportsman acting like a bloated whale looking just a little bit pathetic.
It's nothing to do with not liking him, I find him a comedic characteur these days, it's more concentrating on a has been rather than other Argentine fans, which there were a lot by the looks of it in Leicester, or even the reaction of the Argentine players themselves. Maybe once or even twice, but every time Argentina scored was excessive and rather sad to see a once great sportsman acting like a bloated whale looking just a little bit pathetic.
He might be a has been, but he's still a massive draw, the clamour around him, wherever he went yesterday was extraordinary.
If it was every try of every Argentinian game then I would definitely find it annoying, but as a one off game I didn't mind it too much.
Besides it also made for great world feed commentary lines such as, 'Apparently he's become a huge rugby fan.......well he has become huge'
It's nothing to do with not liking him, I find him a comedic characteur these days, it's more concentrating on a has been rather than other Argentine fans, which there were a lot by the looks of it in Leicester, or even the reaction of the Argentine players themselves. Maybe once or even twice, but every time Argentina scored was excessive and rather sad to see a once great sportsman acting like a bloated whale looking just a little bit pathetic.
He was a famous face in the crowd so the cameras were always going to be pointed towards him.
As for him supporting his team? Why not? By all accounts he is a long-standing supporter of Argentinian rugby and I can't see what the problem is. It is great to see someone on a "freebie" actually caring and cheering on their team rather than wondering how many prawn sandwiches are left....
Irish Broadcasting History yesterday for IRE v ITA RWC Game - TV3 Ireland's highest ever viewing figures in their 17 year history.
From The Irish Times -
Ireland’s Rugby World Cup game against Italy on Sunday was the most-watched programme ever on TV3, beating a record held by the 2010 final of the Simon Cowell entertainment show.
An average of 956,600 viewers watched Ireland beat Italy on TV3 and secure a place in the quarter finals, according to the ratings compiled by TAM Ireland and Nielsen.
This eclipsed the 930,500 people who watched Matt Cardle beat Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction into second and third place respectively on The X Factor in December 2010.
Some 70 per cent of people watching television yesterday afternoon were tuned into the Ireland game, which reached 1.375 million people in total. The audience peaked at 1.184 million viewers.
TV3’s commercial director Pat Kiely had predicted before the tournament began that the channel would reach its highest-ever audience. The broadcaster now hopes to set a fresh record again next Sunday when Ireland take on France in the final pool game.
Its weekend viewing figures were also swelled by England’s defeat to Australia, which attracted an average audience of 685,800 viewers.
As a Welshman, I will not scoff at the demise of England from this tournament (been there, bought the t-shirt!).
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
As a Welshman, I will not scoff at the demise of England from this tournament (been there, bought the t-shirt!).
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
If they moved it to ITV 4 though what would they put on ITV 1, at short notice, that will get a similar viewing figure ? It's a conundrum for them.
As a Welshman, I will not scoff at the demise of England from this tournament (been there, bought the t-shirt!).
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
ITV were always going to schedule England v Uruguay for 8:00 pm on a Saturday but in purely rugby terms Australia v Wales is the much "bigger" game out of the two irrespective of how the pools had eventually worked out because if England had qualified for the quarter-finals then Australia v Wales would have determined who else qualified.
England v Uruguay was only ever going to be about how many tries England can score.
As a Welshman, I will not scoff at the demise of England from this tournament (been there, bought the t-shirt!).
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
It is the pool decider match and determines which side will face S. Africa and which side Scotland potentially in the quarter finals.
It is the pool decider match and determines which side will face S. Africa and which side Scotland potentially in the quarter finals.
I agree. It is a massive game. One route potentially all the way to the finals (via Scotland/Japan and France/Ireland in the quarters and semis respectively) while down the other route it's SA followed by NZ. I don't underestimate that.
But what I meant was that it is no longer a quarter final qualification decider. Both teams have already qualified so Wales will undoubtly play with a "shackles are off" mentality than they probably otherwise would have.
Either way, this should have been the 8pm match from the start. Just because the other match on the day has England in it does not mean that this should get prime time regardless. This should be dictated by the standard of the opposition and both teams involved. Even more so now that the game is meaninless - I'm sure ITV would get much better ratings on the night with any half decent film they could pull out of the vaults.
Fair enough. Thanks for the information, was not aware of that. Perhaps ITV will think long and hard next time, assuming it wins the rights again, as the matches should be the other way around Saturday night, and always should have been. Too late now of course........
As a Welshman, I will not scoff at the demise of England from this tournament (been there, bought the t-shirt!).
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
Fair enough. Thanks for the information, was not aware of that. Perhaps ITV will think long and hard next time, assuming it wins the rights again, as the matches should be the other way around Saturday night, and always should have been. Too late now of course........
Again we're back to the premise that ITV was the sole arbiter of every kickoff time. If the game had stayed in Cardiff it may have been an 8pm start, but once the change to Twickenham was forced it was only ever likely to be an earlier start because of the travel issue for fans heading back to Wales.
On the issue of changing channels, even if ITV could change it would be highly unlikely that they would. Even though it's a dead rubber it will still get a reasonable audience, advertisers have paid for slots based on the premise of that game and it wouldn't create a favourable impression to World Rugby ahead of future negotiations to dump your home and host nation onto a secondary channel.
I'm surprised the final two games in the pools aren't played at the same, like the football World Cup, to avoid any accusations of "convenient" results and scorelines.
Again we're back to the premise that ITV was the sole arbiter of every kickoff time. If the game had stayed in Cardiff it may have been an 8pm start, but once the change to Twickenham was forced it was only ever likely to be an earlier start because of the travel issue for fans heading back to Wales.
On the issue of changing channels, even if ITV could change it would be highly unlikely that they would. Even though it's a dead rubber it will still get a reasonable audience, advertisers have paid for slots based on the premise of that game and it wouldn't create a favourable impression to World Rugby ahead of future negotiations to dump your home and host nation onto a secondary channel.
As has previously been said ion this thread, ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
Fair point about the advertisers having paid for that slot for that match so they woudl it on teh main channel. I doubt ITV give a stuff about what Worls Rugby think though. To them, as a commercial venture, it's all about the bottom line and ratings. I doubt this issue will matter one bit in negotiation talks, it's all about money.
And I know from having worked with the transport (rail) industry that tournament organisers do not give a stuff about the fans transport arrangements post match. There has been enough of a debarticle about transport to and from matches, particularly those in Cardiff, all over the press of late. And fans would have stayed the night in London/surrounding areas in all probability if it was a later kick off. And what of transport arrangements for returning fans after Friday evening 6 nations matches, same principle applies.
I'm surprised the final two games in the pools aren't played at the same, like the football World Cup, to avoid any accusations of "convenient" results and scorelines.
Which games were you specifically thinking of were collusion may occur ? All bar one group is sorted as to which two sides are through ( assuming Tonga don't beat NZ ) so it is irrelevant as to whether they kick off together or not
As has previously been said ion this thread, ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
Fair point about the advertisers having paid for that slot for that match so they woudl it on teh main channel. I doubt ITV give a stuff about what Worls Rugby think though. To them, as a commercial venture, it's all about the bottom line and ratings. I doubt this issue will matter one bit in negotiation talks, it's all about money.
And I know from having worked with the transport (rail) industry that tournament organisers do not give a stuff about the fans transport arrangements post match. There has been enough of a debarticle about transport to and from matches, particularly those in Cardiff, all over the press of late. And fans would have stayed the night in London/surrounding areas in all probability if it was a later kick off. And what of transport arrangements for returning fans after Friday evening 6 nations matches, same principle applies.
Perhaps ITV will think long and hard next time, assuming it wins the rights again, as the matches should be the other way around Saturday night
So it's clear you think it's their fault and no-one else
Explain to me this, if ITV had such a big say on kick off times, why, if England had got through to the quarter-finals, would their game have kicked off at 4pm? Surely a later start time would have been of more benefit to ITV?
Of course ITV would care what World Rugby would think, especially if it harmed their chances of gaining rights for 2019.
If organisers didn't care about fans transport arrangements, why would are there so many roads closed to traffic and left purely for pedestrians exiting stadiums, shuttle buses to/from stations and Park and Rides etc. Just because First Great Western is a shambles 365 days of the year doesn't mean everywhere else is!
I'm surprised the final two games in the pools aren't played at the same, like the football World Cup, to avoid any accusations of "convenient" results and scorelines.
Which games were you specifically thinking of were collusion may occur ? All bar one group is sorted as to which two sides are through ( assuming Tonga don't beat NZ ) so it is irrelevant as to whether they kick off together or not
With five team pools one of the teams won't be playing in the final two games anyway so it's impossible to eliminate the risk
Could people please stop peddling this notion that ITV can move games involving England or any other home nation, even if it is meaningless, to ITV4 (the same goes for football as well).
People moan about a lack of live sport on the "traditional" channels, yet when something is advertised for such channel, they want it moved to a "lesser" channel. Why would ITV (or the BBC) pay an organising body for the rights to show a national side for football or rugby and then put in on a channel which would not have the biggest reach. And I'm sure that's not what the organising body who sold the rights would want.
Could people please stop peddling this notion that ITV can move games involving England or any other home nation, even if it is meaningless, to ITV4 (the same goes for football as well).
People moan about a lack of live sport on the "traditional" channels, yet when something is advertised for such channel, they want it moved to a "lesser" channel. Why would ITV (or the BBC) pay an organising body for the rights to show a national side for football or rugby and then put in on a channel which would not have the biggest reach. And I'm sure that's not what the organising body who sold the rights would want.
It's probably the X Factor fans or Soap Opera fans wanting the Rugby Union on ITV 4.
Ian,
So it's clear you think it's their fault and no-one else
Explain to me this, if ITV had such a big say on kick off times, why, if England had got through to the quarter-finals, would their game have kicked off at 4pm? Surely a later start time would have been of more benefit to ITV?
Of course ITV would care what World Rugby would think, especially if it harmed their chances of gaining rights for 2019.
If organisers didn't care about fans transport arrangements, why would are there so many roads closed to traffic and left purely for pedestrians exiting stadiums, shuttle buses to/from stations and Park and Rides etc. Just because First Great Western is a shambles 365 days of the year doesn't mean everywhere else is!
In my post (193) above I said: ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
So I do not think that ITV had sole say (I don't think it is a matter of "fault" as you put it) but they would have had a big say along with the tournament organisers.
If England had won pool A their quarter final would have been at 4pm on the Sunday. Which is the later of the 2 slots that day and the most favourable. Sunday 6 nations matches do not kick off later than that on a Sunday I believe, so no I do agree that a later time slot on that particular day would have been more favourable.
Road closures/park & ride are organised by the local council and are pretty easy to organise and more quickly. Additional train services are not so simple - the train company has little or no say in the decision making process yet everyone just expects them to lay on extra trains at the drop of a hat. As I say, I know this from first hand experience where the main rail operator in Wales (which is ATW and not FGW as you stated) had a seat at the organising committee for the 6 nations matches in Wales and informed the stadium officials and broadcasters that an 8pm Friday/Saturday night kickoff would have consequenes for fans trying to get home after the match. But of course they did not listen to ATW as they only see the commercial aspect - and do not care at all about fans travel arrangements as I said. Anyone who is in the know appreciates that extra trains cannot always be provided just like that, it depends on where they are scheuled to be on the rail network and their configuration for the following day - units can be out of place and services can end up formed short the next day otherwise (as there is a finite amount of available rolling stock). Usuallly it's less of a problem if the match finishes late on a Saturday rather than a Friday as there are less services run if the next day is a Sunday.
In my post (193) above I said: ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
So I do not think that ITV had sole say (I don't think it is a matter of "fault" as you put it) but they would have had a big say along with the tournament organisers.
If England had won pool A their quarter final would have been at 4pm on the Sunday. Which is the later of the 2 slots that day and the most favourable. Sunday 6 nations matches do not kick off later than that on a Sunday I believe, so no I do agree that a later time slot on that particular day would have been more favourable.
Road closures/park & ride are organised by the local council and are pretty easy to organise and more quickly. Additional train services are not so simple - the train company has little or no say in the decision making process yet everyone just expects them to lay on extra trains at the drop of a hat. As I say, I know this from first hand experience where the main rail operator in Wales (which is ATW and not FGW as you stated) had a seat at the organising committee for the 6 nations matches in Wales and informed the stadium officials and broadcasters that an 8pm Friday/Saturday night kickoff would have consequenes for fans trying to get home after the match. But of course they did not listen to ATW as they only see the commercial aspect - and do not care at all about fans travel arrangements as I said. Anyone who is in the know appreciates that extra trains cannot always be provided just like that, it depends on where they are scheuled to be on the rail network and their configuration for the following day - units can be out of place and services can end up formed short the next day otherwise (as there is a finite amount of available rolling stock). Usuallly it's less of a problem if the match finishes late on a Saturday rather than a Friday as there are less services run if the next day is a Sunday.
But if ITV did not have sole say why would they have to have to 'think long and hard' about something that wasn't ultimately down to them? You're undermining your original argument.
If England had finished second (which surely was reasonable given the strength of the group) they would have played at 4pm on the Saturday.....much less favourable to ITV than the 8pm kick off in Cardiff the same day. Surely in your paradigm the best scenario to an ITV scheduling all kick off times would be 8pm on the Saturday or 4pm on the Sunday?
Also nowhere did I state that FGW was the main train operator in Wales
But if ITV did not have sole say why would they have to have to 'think long and hard' about something that wasn't ultimately down to them? You're undermining your original argument.
If England had finished second (which surely was reasonable given the strength of the group) they would have played at 4pm on the Saturday.....much less favourable to ITV than the 8pm kick off in Cardiff the same day. Surely in your paradigm the best scenario to an ITV scheduling all kick off times would be 8pm on the Saturday or 4pm on the Sunday?
Also nowhere did I state that FGW was the main train operator in Wales
At the end of the day we don't know just how much power and influence ITV did have. I did not say ITV held all the aces. But if they held a few and pressed hard for the existing schedule, or as near to as they could get, they may wish to reconsider this for the future. That is what I meant when I said they would have to think long & hard. They would have had a strategy after all.
No-one could have predicated how the so called pool of death would have ended and the likelihood of a bigger yield for a later kick off on the Saturday night from the other pool may have had an influence. But we don't know. And how many would have predicted England's early exit.
No you did not say that FGW was the main operator in Wales - but it was a bit strange to single them out when I was referring to the rail transport debarcle in Wales - which ATW had ultimate responsibility for.
Comments
It's nothing to do with not liking him, I find him a comedic characteur these days, it's more concentrating on a has been rather than other Argentine fans, which there were a lot by the looks of it in Leicester, or even the reaction of the Argentine players themselves. Maybe once or even twice, but every time Argentina scored was excessive and rather sad to see a once great sportsman acting like a bloated whale looking just a little bit pathetic.
He might be a has been, but he's still a massive draw, the clamour around him, wherever he went yesterday was extraordinary.
If it was every try of every Argentinian game then I would definitely find it annoying, but as a one off game I didn't mind it too much.
Besides it also made for great world feed commentary lines such as, 'Apparently he's become a huge rugby fan.......well he has become huge'
He was a famous face in the crowd so the cameras were always going to be pointed towards him.
As for him supporting his team? Why not? By all accounts he is a long-standing supporter of Argentinian rugby and I can't see what the problem is. It is great to see someone on a "freebie" actually caring and cheering on their team rather than wondering how many prawn sandwiches are left....
From The Irish Times -
25 million people in Japan watched the 26-5 victory, beating a previous best of 20.7 million set by France for their 2007 World Cup semi-final.
The recorded audience represents 20% of the entire Japanese population.
( Source: Walesonline /The Times/PA)
I wonder how many watched that game here?
What was the ratings for the 2003 final?
12.3 million
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3372245.stm
I think the newspapers have done enough of that on their own.
But I do wonder how many people will bother to watch the England Saturday evening dead rubber match. ITV must be kicking themselves now for scheduling that one on the main channel, wouldn't be at all suprised if it had a late change over to ITV4.
Now I would have always had the Wales v Australia in the prine time evening slot in the first place, as that would have been the potential pool decider match. Of course, we (Wales) have already qualified for the quarters.........happy days
If they moved it to ITV 4 though what would they put on ITV 1, at short notice, that will get a similar viewing figure ? It's a conundrum for them.
The game is now officially meaningless
ITV were always going to schedule England v Uruguay for 8:00 pm on a Saturday but in purely rugby terms Australia v Wales is the much "bigger" game out of the two irrespective of how the pools had eventually worked out because if England had qualified for the quarter-finals then Australia v Wales would have determined who else qualified.
England v Uruguay was only ever going to be about how many tries England can score.
It is the pool decider match and determines which side will face S. Africa and which side Scotland potentially in the quarter finals.
I agree. It is a massive game. One route potentially all the way to the finals (via Scotland/Japan and France/Ireland in the quarters and semis respectively) while down the other route it's SA followed by NZ. I don't underestimate that.
But what I meant was that it is no longer a quarter final qualification decider. Both teams have already qualified so Wales will undoubtly play with a "shackles are off" mentality than they probably otherwise would have.
Either way, this should have been the 8pm match from the start. Just because the other match on the day has England in it does not mean that this should get prime time regardless. This should be dictated by the standard of the opposition and both teams involved. Even more so now that the game is meaninless - I'm sure ITV would get much better ratings on the night with any half decent film they could pull out of the vaults.
They are not able to move it to ITV4. Ofcom have set a maximum of 10 matches for that channel, and these were scheduled prior to the tournament.
Ofcom have also stated that all matches involving the home nations will be broadcast on the channel 3 network.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/rugby-world-cup-2015/
Fair enough. Thanks for the information, was not aware of that. Perhaps ITV will think long and hard next time, assuming it wins the rights again, as the matches should be the other way around Saturday night, and always should have been. Too late now of course........
Again we're back to the premise that ITV was the sole arbiter of every kickoff time. If the game had stayed in Cardiff it may have been an 8pm start, but once the change to Twickenham was forced it was only ever likely to be an earlier start because of the travel issue for fans heading back to Wales.
On the issue of changing channels, even if ITV could change it would be highly unlikely that they would. Even though it's a dead rubber it will still get a reasonable audience, advertisers have paid for slots based on the premise of that game and it wouldn't create a favourable impression to World Rugby ahead of future negotiations to dump your home and host nation onto a secondary channel.
As has previously been said ion this thread, ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
Fair point about the advertisers having paid for that slot for that match so they woudl it on teh main channel. I doubt ITV give a stuff about what Worls Rugby think though. To them, as a commercial venture, it's all about the bottom line and ratings. I doubt this issue will matter one bit in negotiation talks, it's all about money.
And I know from having worked with the transport (rail) industry that tournament organisers do not give a stuff about the fans transport arrangements post match. There has been enough of a debarticle about transport to and from matches, particularly those in Cardiff, all over the press of late. And fans would have stayed the night in London/surrounding areas in all probability if it was a later kick off. And what of transport arrangements for returning fans after Friday evening 6 nations matches, same principle applies.
Which games were you specifically thinking of were collusion may occur ? All bar one group is sorted as to which two sides are through ( assuming Tonga don't beat NZ ) so it is irrelevant as to whether they kick off together or not
In your previous post you said
So it's clear you think it's their fault and no-one else
Explain to me this, if ITV had such a big say on kick off times, why, if England had got through to the quarter-finals, would their game have kicked off at 4pm? Surely a later start time would have been of more benefit to ITV?
Of course ITV would care what World Rugby would think, especially if it harmed their chances of gaining rights for 2019.
If organisers didn't care about fans transport arrangements, why would are there so many roads closed to traffic and left purely for pedestrians exiting stadiums, shuttle buses to/from stations and Park and Rides etc. Just because First Great Western is a shambles 365 days of the year doesn't mean everywhere else is!
With five team pools one of the teams won't be playing in the final two games anyway so it's impossible to eliminate the risk
People moan about a lack of live sport on the "traditional" channels, yet when something is advertised for such channel, they want it moved to a "lesser" channel. Why would ITV (or the BBC) pay an organising body for the rights to show a national side for football or rugby and then put in on a channel which would not have the biggest reach. And I'm sure that's not what the organising body who sold the rights would want.
It's probably the X Factor fans or Soap Opera fans wanting the Rugby Union on ITV 4.
Ian,
In my post (193) above I said: ITV probably did have a big say in the kick off times, although I would not have gone as far as to say they were the "sole arbiter" to use your words.
So I do not think that ITV had sole say (I don't think it is a matter of "fault" as you put it) but they would have had a big say along with the tournament organisers.
If England had won pool A their quarter final would have been at 4pm on the Sunday. Which is the later of the 2 slots that day and the most favourable. Sunday 6 nations matches do not kick off later than that on a Sunday I believe, so no I do agree that a later time slot on that particular day would have been more favourable.
Road closures/park & ride are organised by the local council and are pretty easy to organise and more quickly. Additional train services are not so simple - the train company has little or no say in the decision making process yet everyone just expects them to lay on extra trains at the drop of a hat. As I say, I know this from first hand experience where the main rail operator in Wales (which is ATW and not FGW as you stated) had a seat at the organising committee for the 6 nations matches in Wales and informed the stadium officials and broadcasters that an 8pm Friday/Saturday night kickoff would have consequenes for fans trying to get home after the match. But of course they did not listen to ATW as they only see the commercial aspect - and do not care at all about fans travel arrangements as I said. Anyone who is in the know appreciates that extra trains cannot always be provided just like that, it depends on where they are scheuled to be on the rail network and their configuration for the following day - units can be out of place and services can end up formed short the next day otherwise (as there is a finite amount of available rolling stock). Usuallly it's less of a problem if the match finishes late on a Saturday rather than a Friday as there are less services run if the next day is a Sunday.
But if ITV did not have sole say why would they have to have to 'think long and hard' about something that wasn't ultimately down to them? You're undermining your original argument.
If England had finished second (which surely was reasonable given the strength of the group) they would have played at 4pm on the Saturday.....much less favourable to ITV than the 8pm kick off in Cardiff the same day. Surely in your paradigm the best scenario to an ITV scheduling all kick off times would be 8pm on the Saturday or 4pm on the Sunday?
Also nowhere did I state that FGW was the main train operator in Wales
At the end of the day we don't know just how much power and influence ITV did have. I did not say ITV held all the aces. But if they held a few and pressed hard for the existing schedule, or as near to as they could get, they may wish to reconsider this for the future. That is what I meant when I said they would have to think long & hard. They would have had a strategy after all.
No-one could have predicated how the so called pool of death would have ended and the likelihood of a bigger yield for a later kick off on the Saturday night from the other pool may have had an influence. But we don't know. And how many would have predicted England's early exit.
No you did not say that FGW was the main operator in Wales - but it was a bit strange to single them out when I was referring to the rail transport debarcle in Wales - which ATW had ultimate responsibility for.