Sun 23 Feb - Aviva Premiership Rugby (BT Sport 1)

Craig Doyle presenting from the studio throughout, alongside Lawrence Dallaglio and Worcester's Jonathan Thomas.

London Irish v Leicester Tigers (Madejski Stadium)
Commentators: Alastair Eykyn, Alex Corbisiero & Austin Healey
Reporter: Sarra Elgan

Saracens v Exeter Chiefs (Allianz Park)
Commentators: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Matt Dawson
Reporter: Martin Bayfield

Salford Red Devils vs St Helens - Thursday, February 27th, 2014 - Sky Sports 1

Commentators: Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson
Summarizer: Phil Clarke
Guest Summarizer: Barrie McDermott
Touchline Reporter: Rod Studd
Special Comments: Stuart Cummings
Analysis: Brian Carney and Jon Wells

The schedule 8pm kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes to allow fans to get into the stadium due to traffic problems.

do they really need all of them people to do ONE match?

Friday 28th February - BBC Two Wales

Scrum V Live: Edinburgh v Ospreys

Ross Harries presenting from the studio alongside Jonathan Davies, Martyn Williams and Shane Williams

Commentators: Gareth Charles and Scott Hastings

Reporter: Phil Steele

Oh dear a Hastings outing!

Not seen very much Scrum v this season, only if Scottish sides have played. Quite like in the stoppages of play they are feeding in tries from other games.

Oh and off topic but get Edinburgh at Meggitland every home game (maybe minus Heineken Cup) far better atmosphere.

nope.

Well technically you do not need anyone!

I do not think they use any more people on their rugby league coverage as any other sport overall, it is just that rather than having a separate studio plus two or three commentary crews for different games they have everyone work together on every game.

But Sky have been using four people as the main commentary team for a long time, with a guest joining Eddie, Stevo, and Phil. They have also always had a touchline reporter.

So all they have done is add Stuart Cummings as the former head of referees who can explain decisions which is far better than the everyone guessing as the rules which is what used to happen (usually five minutes later explained as "Stuart Cummings has been on the phone to say...). And Jon Wells to provide analysis at half and full time, which I prefer to the previous panel discussion at half time. His position is more like the third man in cricket.

When Brian Carney is involved, and not as a summarizer he is effectively just taking a studio anchor position, which no one would question in other sports as rugby league is the exception where the lead commentator is also the studio anchor.

And it is not like the BBC are any different, where for an average Challenge Cup round you would have something like Chapman, Noble, Millward, and Crabtree in the studio with one or two of them providing comments during the commentary from Woods and Davis while they have Hunter-Paul and Arnold on the touchlines.

Personally I do not see a problem. While there may be a lot of voices heard during commentary the guests only speak when they have something to add so it does not seem cluttered, and better than the current trend of three-person teams in cricket.

Hull KR v Castleford – Sky Sports 1. (Fri 28th Feb 2014)
Commentators:Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson
Summariser: Phil Clarke
Guest Summariser: Paul Cullen
Touchline Reporter: Graham Beecroft
Special Comments:Stuart Cummings

Eddie Hemmings presented HT Analysis with Jon Wells.

Catalans v Leeds – Sky Sports 1.
Brian Carney presented delayed coverage of Catalans v Leeds. Bill Arthur,Terry O Connor and Barrie McDermott were the commentators.

John Kear was the studio guest with Carney, who together provided half time and full time analysis as well as showing the tries from Widnes vs Huddersfield.

8 people to cover one game ? What ? that is far too many. Why have a "special comments" commentator if you don't speak to him before or after the game ? Just another voice that isn't needed, Sky have as many people covering an 80 minute Super League game as they do a 5 day test match sometimes.

Even on the football they manage with just 6. It doesn't need 4 of them to commentate. I think it's time Stevo and Phil Clarke were put out to grass and Brian Carney used more.

What do you want him to do, talk how well the referee did in training that week and preview some forward passes he hopes to see? Cummings is not a commentator, he is not captioned as a commentator, and I do not see how the fact that describe him as "special comments" somehow means he should be doing more than his job, which is simply to explain decisions.

Complaining about the number of people they use simply because of what that number is rather than how badly the setup works is frankly bizarre. If people were constantly fighting to be heard then I can understand, but that is not the case. And what does it matter how other sports are covered, they are all just preferences by the respective production teams not Platonic forms. I have yet to see anyone even suggest their current system does not work, the only complaints are about how it looks on paper (or screen) or how they would like certain people to be dropped simply because of their personal biases against them.

So rather than worrying about how they are captioned, or the fact you are not a fan of Stevo and Clarke, how is Sky's approach detrimental to their coverage, and how would it be better if they reduced their presentation team?

Just to correct myself from last night - contrary to the BBC Two Wales programme guide, Jonathan Davies was not involved in their coverage last night, with a two-man panel of Shane and Martyn joining Ross in the Scrum V studio.


I thought of you when I heard that co-commentary appointment!

With it being St David's Day, I trust your Welsh is coming on a treat after last night. Not sure who was on Welsh language commentary duty on the BBC Red Button, perhaps Ian C will be able to let us know.

By Special Comments I was thinking more of the second guest summariser - eg John Kear, Paul Cullen etc

Sky have tried many things and some have been a bit silly. The "Margin-o-metre" was quite frankly ridiculous. Thankfully they realised the error of their ways and dropped it. This ref cam isn't a favourite of mine either. Seems a case of trying something for the sake of it.

As for the voices, no they aren't fighting over each other but it is constant chat, do you need that ? I am a rugby league fan and have attended enough games in the past 35 years to know how to watch it without constant chatter. Stevo trying to be constantly controversial and mispronouncing things in his pseudo Aussie accent. Boring now. Alex Murphy did that years ago on the BBC.

I don't get why you are being aggressive towards me when I have done nothing of the sort towards you. I just don't know why in cricket you have 2 sometimes 3 commentators, football 2 at most, rugby union 2 sometimes 3, yet in Super League they need to have 4.

Actually Darren, in Cricket you could have up to 6 commentators.

Two and the third man, and then they normally get rotated around after a certain amount of overs.

So for instance you could have Botham and Gower, with Lloyd as 3rd man. Then to rotate, you could have Warne and Atherton, with Hussain as 3rd man.

Unless they have "a Richard Keys/Andy Gray moment" or they receive a knock on their door from the old bill about "events in the past", they won't be dumped anytime soon and especially with the extension of the TV deal.

Across all sports, Sky seem to be reluctant to change commentary/punditry teams by design.

Not at the same time you don't. Usually a max of 3 at any one time.

Not a clue. I didn't watch it.

2014 Six Nations - Round 4 (BBC One)

Ireland v Italy (Sat 08 Mar)
Presenter: John Inverdale
Pundits: Keith Wood & Jeremy Guscott
Commentary: Eddie Butler & Phillip Mathews

Scotland v France (Sat 08 Mar)
Presenter: Gabby Logan
Pundits: Andy Nicol, Jonathan Davies & Sir Ian McGeechan
Commentary: Andrew Cotter & Chris Paterson

England v Wales (Sun 09 Mar)
Presenter: John Inverdale
Pundits: Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies & Sir Clive Woodward
Commentary: Eddie Butler, Brian Moore & Martyn Williams

Sat 01 Mar - Aviva Premiership Rugby (BT Sport 1)
Northampton Saints v Gloucester

Martin Bayfield presenting from Franklin's Gardens alongside Will Fraser and Austin Healey.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Austin Healey

No reporter today, Nick Mullins did pre- and post-match interviews with the coaches (except Jim Mallinder post-match who joined Bayfield & co), with Martin Bayfield doing interviews at half-time.

RBS Six Nations BBC Round 4 2014

Ireland v Italy
Presenter - John Inverdale
Pundits - Jeremy Guscott and Keith Wood
Commentators - Eddie Butler and Phillip Matthews

Scotland v France
Presenter - Gabby Logan
Pundits - Sir Ian McGeechan, Jonathan Davies and Andy Nicol
Commentators - Andrew Cotter and Chris Paterson

I shall post the England vs Wales information when it has been announced

See the post two above yours

Sunday 2nd March - BBC Two Wales

Scrum V Sunday

Ross Harries presented alongside Jonathan Davies and Kingsley Jones

RaboDirect Pro12
Scarlets v Munster - Nick Webb and Rob Jones (as S4C's Red Button)
Zebre v Cardiff Blues - Phil Steele
Ulster v Newport Gwent Dragons - Jim Neilly and Tony McWhirter (as BBC Two Northern Ireland)
Edinburgh v Ospreys - Gareth Charles and Scott Hastings, with Phil Steele conducting post-match interviews

Preview of England v Wales (including interviews with Sam Warburton, Owen Farrell, Danny Care and Jack Nowell) - Ross Harries

I don't think it really needs to be announced to work that out. Bloody Brian Moore.

ITV Covering the UK Open Darts from next week

Matt Smith hosting as usual but a change in commentary. John Rawling is away at the Winter Paralympics so Jim Proudfoot is joining Stuart Pyke, Alan Warriner-Little and Chris Mason.

great that Jim Proudfoot is joining ITV this weekend for the darts...