The evening session of the World Championship of Ping Pong also overran by an hour, and a bit more. It was due to finish by 9:30pm, but with some of the earlier matches going all the way the final did not start until just after then. That also went to a deciding fifth game so play only finished just before 10:30pm.

Six Nations on the BBC

Wales v England- John Inverdale. With commentary by Eddie Butler, Brian Moore and Martyn Williams, reports by Sonja McLaughlan, and analysis by Clive Woodward, Jonathan Davies and Jeremy Guscott.

France v Scotland- Gabby Logan introduces. With commentary by Andrew Cotter and Andy Nicol, analysis by Thomas Castaignede and reports by Jill Douglas.

Australian Open Tennis - Thursday 29th Jan (BBC TWO)

Semi-Final - Andy Murray v Tomas Berdych

Presented by Sue Barker and John Lloyd in Salford.

Commentators: Jonathan Overend and John Lloyd.

Sundays final will now be shown live on BBC One instead of the previously scheduled BBC Two.

The United States commentary team on ESPN was Chris Fowler, Patrick McEnroe and Darren Cahill with Chris McKendry, Brad Gilbert and Mary Joe Fernandes in the Melbourne studio. ESPN did not show Jim Courier's interview with Andy Murray on court but instead Tom Rinaldi interviewed him later.

Six Nations on RTE

Wales v England- Presented by Tom McGurk, with analysis from George Hook, Ronan O'Gara and Shane Horgan, and commentary by Ryle Nugent and Conor O'Shea.

Six Nations on the BBC

Italy v Ireland- Jason Mohammad presents. With commentary by Conor McNamara and Phillip Matthews, analysis by Keith Wood and Carlo del Fava, and reports by Lee McKenzie.

Tennis; Australian Open, Djokovic v Wawrinka
Channel 7, Australia Bruce McAvaney, Jim Courier and Lleyton Hewitt (commentary)
British Eurosport Simon Reed, Mats Wilander and Frew McMillan (commentary)
ESPN, United States Chris Fowler and Darren Cahill (commentary) with Brad Gilbert on the sidelines.

International A-Team Rugby Union - Friday 30 January (Sky Sports 2)

Ireland Wolfhounds v England Saxons

Alex Payne in the studio with Shane Horgan and Ben Morgan.

Commentators: Mark Robson & Stuart Barnes

Six Nations on RTE

Italy v Ireland and France v Scotland- Tom McGurk is joined by Brent Pope, Donal Lenihan, George Hook, Ronan O'Gara and Shane Horgan to present. Hugh Cahill and Ralph Keyes commentate on the opening encounter, and George Hamilton and Bernard Jackman take over for the second.

oh so i have to listen to Conor McNamara? was hoping they would use that welsh guy that does the the games for bbc wales

i noticed with the six nations this year there are more night games then were used to be

Gareth Charles? It's highly unlikely as he's now also S4C's lead commentator.

Ali Bruce-Ball would be preferable to McNamara though, or even taking RTÉ's commentary.

McNamara is a decent football commentator but was awful (certinaly on tv) last year on the rugby. Could not keep up with play so resorted to inane facts during play. ABB is a bit better.

More of the assorted rugby going on this weekend:

LV Cup Rugby - Saturday 31 January (Sky Sports 1)

Round 3 - Harlequins v Bath

James Gemmell at The Stoop with Pat Sanderson and Lee Mears.

Commentators: Johnnie Hammond & Ieuan Evans

Rugby Union Friendly - Saturday 31 January (BT Sport 1)

Saracens v Blue Bulls

Sarra Elgan at Allianz Park with Alistair Hargreaves.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Austin Healey

always like super 14 ones like greg clark matthew pearce and tony johnson

If I were to guess the BBC comms for the 6 Nations (OK, we know the first 3 sets):

WAL v ENG: Eddie Butler, Brian Moore & Martyn Williams
ITA v IRE: Conor McNamara & Phillip Matthews
FRA v SCO: Andrew Cotter & Andy Nicol

ENG v ITA: Andrew Cotter & Brian Moore
IRE v FRA: Eddie Butler & Phillip Matthews
SCO v WAL: Andrew Cotter, Jonathan Davies & Andy Nicol

SCO v ITA: Alistair Bruce-Ball & Andy Nicol
FRA v WAL: Andrew Cotter & Jonathan Davies
IRE v ENG: Eddie Butler, Brian Moore & Phillip Matthews

WAL v IRE: Eddie Butler, Phillip Matthews & Martyn Williams
ENG v SCO: Andrew Cotter, Brian Moore & Andy Nicol
ITA v FRA: Eddie Butler & Jonathan Davies

ITA v WAL: Alistair Bruce-Ball & Jonathan Davies
SCO v IRE: Andrew Cotter, Phillip Matthews & Andy Nicol
ENG v FRA: Eddie Butler & Brian Moore

Time to see how wrong I am...

Looks about right. Is the first three weekends comms wise confirmed? As wouldn't be surprised to see Chris Patterson and/or Andy Robinson being thrown into the mixer comms wise as a 'Scottish' rep leaving Nicol to be pundit. Also depending on 5 Live assignments Butler or Cotter Could easily so Sco v Ita and Ire v Eng

There's only one night game, Wales vs England. No real difference to many other years

That's what has been posted on here, presumably taken from the BBC TV Guide. I'd expect Nicol to be on comms, although Paterson might well join him. Someone will have to be pundit alongside Castaignède though, surely they can't have their sole pundit being a non-native English speaker.

The predictions for ABB are more based on the fact that McNamara is down to do Italy-Ireland - it would seem the BBC want to try out others to some extent, although I doubt that will be a third commentator being used every single weekend.

Six Nations on the BBC

England v Italy- John Inverdale introduces. With commentary by Andrew Cotter and Brian Moore, analysis by Lewis Moody, Carlo de Fava and Jeremy Guscott, and reports by Sonja McLaughlan.

Ireland v France- Gabby Logan presents. With commentary by Eddie Butler and Phillip Matthews, analysis by Keith Wood and Clive Woodward, and reports by Jill Douglas.

Six Nations on the BBC

Scotland v Wales- John Inverdale introduces. Expert studio analysis comes from Jeremy Guscott, Martyn Williams and Andy Nicol, while Andrew Cotter, Jonathan Davies and Chris Paterson are the match commentators.

Sunday 1st February - Channel 4

American Football Live: Super Bowl XLIX: New England Patriots v Seattle Seahawks

Nat Coombs presented from the studio alongside Osi Umenyiora and Mike Carlson

Gethin Jones was on the sidelines at the University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona for Channel 4, joined by Adam Richman and Vernon Kay pre-match

Commetators: Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth (as NBC)

Reporter: Michele Tafoya (as NBC)

Trophy Presentation: Dan Patrick (as NBC)

NBC's presenting team (who we saw briefly on C4 after the trophy presentation) was lead by Bob Costas with Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Hines Ward and John Harbaugh.

has the bbc ever had to cover two six nations games with overlapping starting times like in 2002 at italy and wales

Sunday 1st February - BBC Two Wales

Scrum V Six Nations Special

Ross Harries presented alongside Jonathan Davies, Jeremy Guscott and Martyn Williams, with Adam Jones at the bar

Wales preview (including interviews with Sam Warburton and Warren Gatland from the Six Nations launch) - Ross Harries
Sean's spotlight (analysis features on Liam and Scott Williams, Scotland and England) - Sean Holley
Interview with Mike Ruddock from Dublin - Ross Harries
Previews of the Wales Under-20s and Wales Women's Six Nations campaigns - Ross Harries
Report from the memorial match for Nelson RFC's Vernon Jenkins - Rick O'Shea
Italy and France previews - Eddie Butler
Scrum V Classic Cuts - Wales v England 1985 (Jonathan Davies' debut) - Eddie Butler

An Eddie Butler-voiced montage opened Scrum V's Six Nations preview show, with a Wales v England montage with music from the Brythoniaid male voice choir closed it.

The show was filmed not from the usual Scrum V studio for Pro12 programmes but from the rugby club bar-style set that has been used during the Autumn Internationals and Six Nations in previous years. The show went out live in front of a studio audience including the aforementioned Vernon Jenkins, Wales Under-20s captain Rory Thornton and Wales Women captain Rachel Taylor.

there are a lot of 17:00 starts this year for the six nations?

This year 6 games start at 5pm or later, it's nothing majorly different to previous seasons

2014 - 5
2013 - 5
2012 - 3 (originally 4 before France vs Ireland was postponed)
2011 - 6
2010 -5