Originally Posted by OMc:
“I have no idea if Dave Woods has a backup at all, nor do they ever seem to have a great variety of pundits whenever I watch.”
Variety by quality or number?
As there usual lineup is from Noble, Wilkin, Peacock, Crabtree, and Hunter-Paul, that is a pool of five regulars when they only ever use three.
They also have brought in a big name player as guest pundits. Sam Burgess joined them for the World Cup final, and they had Ashton Sims during a Challenge Cup match this summer.
But if necessary Kear and Davies can also double up pre- and post-match outside of commentary duties.
And when one of Johnson or Arnold is unavailable they use one of their pundits to work as a reporter, as Crabtree did yesterday. So they are not left struggling to find someone even without needing guests.
For the number of matches they show, and how spaced apart most of them are, there is no need having totally different presenting teams from one match to the next.
But I have no idea who the official second choice commentator is. Though I cannot remember the last time they had two games in a day other than the opening double header of the 2013 world cup, when Ray French called Wales vs Italy as his final match for BBC TV.
Ian Ramsdale was the third choice commentator during that World Cup, although he only appeared live on Premier Sports matches. He was, though, the rugby league commentator for BBC London.
Stuart Pyke is one of the commentators for BBC Five Live, and called the Leeds vs New Zealand match on Premier Sports so has TV experience.
George Riley is, with Woods, the other regular BBC Five Live commentator.
Andy Giddings of BBC Sheffield has been used to commentate on the highlights for The Super League Show.
So they could easily use any of those if required without even having to look at brining someone new in. I am not sure what Graham Beecroft is doing now, but as he no longer works on Sky Sport's rugby league coverage he could be a option too if they want someone with TV commentary experience in the sport.