Today's Guardian has this interesting obituary of David Duffield:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...field-obituary

Six Nations Rugby Union on RTE2

Friday 18 March

Ireland v Scotland u20s- Joanne Cantwell presents. With analysis from Alan Quinlan and Donal Lenihan, and commentary by Hugh Cahill and Tony Ward.

Friday 19 March

Daire O'Brien presents. With analysis from Brent Pope, Shane Horgan and Eddie O'Sullivan.

Wales v Italy- Commentary by George Hamilton and Bernard Jackman
Ireland v Scotland- Commentary by Ryle Nugent and Donal Lenihan
France v England- Commentary by Hugh Cahill and Ralph Keyes

When the commentary team is split 1 forward and 1 back (as it should be) theres no one I prefer to listen to than Flatman. The difference between him and Brian Moore is astronomical and although Kay is also very good, Flatman still edges him for me.

Not seen much IRB 7s this campaign so far, but after pre-christmas and the lack of presentation it seemed. I see the more 'social' timing 7s are still getting studio coverage. James Gemmell and co talking between games at the Canada event.

Been a real mixed bag with the 7s and Super Rugby. Yesterday evening they didn't have any studio pres for Vancouver (or at least any while I was watching)

Maybe studio for day 2 of the 7s as it's finals day?

Super Rugby trend seems to be studio coverage on the 2 or 3 games on a Saturday morning but none elsewhere. Although it is odd to have 2 or 3 of them at half 6 in the morning on a Saturday but no studio for the SA games in the afternoon.

Six Nations Round-up

RBS 6 Nations – Round 4 on BBC One

Ireland v Italy (Sat 12 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Andrew Cotter & Keith Wood

England v Wales (Sat 12 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Eddie Butler & Brian Moore
Reporter: Sonja McLaughlan

Scotland v France (Sun 13 Mar)
John Inverdale live at BT Murrayfield with Jeremy Guscott, Chris Paterson and Thomas Castaignède.
Commentary: Andrew Cotter, Brian Moore & Andy Nicol
Analyst: Jonathan Davies
Reporter: Lee McKenzie

The BBC also showed extended highlights at the start of their hour build-up from Murrayfield, with Andy Nicol, Jeremy Guscott and Jonathan Davies alongside John Inverdale.


RBS 6 Nations – Round 4 on ITV

Ireland v Italy (Sat 12 Mar)
Jill Douglas live at the Aviva Stadium with Gordon D’Arcy, Marco Bortolami and Maggie Alphonsi.
Commentary: Martin Gillingham, Alan Quinlan & Scott Hastings
Reporter: Tom Skippings

England v Wales (Sat 12 Mar)
Mark Pougatch live at Twickenham with Jonny Wilkinson, Sir Clive Woodward and Gareth Thomas. Gabriel Clarke pitchside with Jason Robinson and Shane Williams.
Commentary: Miles Harrison, David Flatman & Shane Williams
Reporter: Gabriel Clarke

Scotland v France (Sun 13 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Martin Gillingham & Scott Hastings
(They were on-site as Gillingham did interviews afterwards for the highlights show)

Highlights Show
Jill Douglas in the studio with Gordon D'Arcy, Gareth Thomas, Craig Chalmers and Ugo Monye.


RBS 6 Nations – Round 4 on S4C

England v Wales (Sat 12 Mar)
Gareth Roberts at Twickenham with Deiniol Jones, Dafydd Jones and Dwayne Peel.
Commentary: Gareth Charles, Gwyn Jones & Dwayne Peel
Reporter: Catrin Heledd

S4C showing a round-up of Round 3's games with (strangely) French commentary other than the Wales game they covered.

The European Wrestling Championships- Olly Hogben and Simon Golding for Eurosport

Most likely, also I think the 7s went behind the red button for a couple of hours whilst the womens international was on and it also ran through til very late overnight

That was a perfect way for the BBC to go about things yesterday. With my local rugby match kicking off at 3.00pm I only saw the second half of the England match and didn't have time to watch a full re-run but a decent amount of highlights to stat the coverage was perfect.

It is something I had thought the BBC should have been doing in the past before the Sunday matches so the one advantage of the new rights agreement is more opportunities for decent highlights.

Aviva Premiership Rugby – Saturday 12 March (BT Sport 1)

Round 16 – Wasps v Leicester Tigers

Craig Doyle at the Ricoh Arena with Austin Healey and Lawrence Dallaglio.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio & Austin Healey


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Saturday 12 March (BT Sport 1)

Round 16 – London Irish v Saracens

Martin Bayfield in the studio with Ben Franks and Todd Clever. Sarra Elgan pitchside at the Red Bull Arena with Ugo Monye, Ben Kay and Dan Lyle.

Commentators: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Ugo Monye

Reporter: Sarra Elgan


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Monday 14 March (ITV 4)

Round 16 Highlights

Mark Durden-Smith in New York with Ugo Monye.

HAR v BTH: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio & Austin Healey (as BT Sport)

WAS v LEIC: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio & Austin Healey (as BT Sport)
NOR v SAL: Nick Heath

LIR v SAR: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Ugo Monye (as BT Sport)

WOR v GLO: Tom Skippings (reporting)
EXE v NEW: Tom Skippings (reporting)

Other full-match commentaries on premiershiprugby.tv:
WOR v GLO: Chris Sharples
EXE v NEW: Seb Hutchinson
NOR v SAL: Dan Strange

Saturday 27 March- Boxing on Channel 5

Nick Blackwell v Chris Eubank Jr.- Presented by Paul Dempsey, with commentary by Dave Farrar and Richie Woodhall, and analysis from Billy Joe Saunders.

Was very surprised to see that Sky is presenting the Indian Wells tennis on site - don't ever recall them doing that before - indeed not sure they've ever presented any Masters 1000 events on site before.

Wonder if this is indirectly linked to the loss of the Champions League with much of the tennis in a more prominent position on SS1.

Haven't seen much of it so not sure of all details but at 6pm this evening Marcus Buckland was presenting - talking to Annabel Croft and Leif Shiras - all on site.

Does anybody know if anyone else is on site?

Presenter: Natalie Pinkham to present from Sky Studios in London
Guests: Graeme Lowdon, Marc Priestley

St Patrick's Day Finals on BBC Two Northern Ireland

St Paul's Bessbrook v St Pat's Maghera and RBAI v Campbell College- Thomas Niblock presents Gaelic Football's MacRory Cup final, with commentary by Austin O'Callaghan. Gavin Andrews will present the Rugby Union Ulster Schools' Cup final. Commentary by Jim Neilly and Tony McWhirter.

Tuesday 15th to Friday 18th March - Channel 4

Channel 4 Racing: The Cheltenham Festival

Clare Balding presented from the course with Sir AP McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald, Alice Plunkett, Rishi Persad and Ted Walsh

Nick Luck presented from the studio with Jim McGrath and Graham Cunningham

Commentator: Simon Holt

Betting: Tanya Stevenson and Brian Gleeson

Presenter: Steve Jones to present from Albert Park in Melbourne
Pundits: David Coulthard, Mark Webber
Commentators: Ben Edwards, David Coulthard with Kuran Chandhok on pit road
Reporter: Lee McKenzie

Presenter: Simon Lazenby presenting from Albert Park in Melbourne
Pundits: Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert

As The F1 Show is now only on race weekends I expect only the Sky pundits to pop-up now therefore I now list them as 'pundits' instead of 'guests'.

Don't have full Racing UK details, but Mike Cattermole and Mark Johnson shared commentary duties today. Olly Bell and Lydia Hislop were the reporters seemingly

I can't stand any of the Sky Sports golf commentators. Can't warm to them at all

I appreciate the effort of Sky sending their own commentators to cover the PGA tour events but quite frankly their C Team of guys like Nick 'wonder how he got that job' Dougherty' and the like can't hold a candle to the regular American boys.

Dougherty and Roe are terrible. However don't mind/prefer the Sky coverage/commentary from the rest of them - Murray, Beem (particuarly like Beem), Claude Harmon III etc.

Aviva Premiership Rugby – Friday 18 March (BT Sport 2 / BT Sport Extra 1)

Round 17 – Bath v Newcastle Falcons

Sarra Elgan at The Rec with Austin Healey, Ben Kay and Tom May.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Austin Healey

Reporter: Chris Hollins


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Sunday 20 March (BT Sport 1)

Martin Bayfield in the studio with Lawrence Dallaglio and Phil Dowson.

Round 17 – Exeter Chiefs v Northampton Saints

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Damian Welch & Andy Goode

Reporter: Sarra Elgan

Round 17 – Leicester Tigers v Saracens

Commentators: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Austin Healey

Reporter: Chris Hollins


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Sunday 20 March (ITV)

Round 17 Highlights

Mark Durden-Smith at Welford Road with David Flatman.

BTH v NEW: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Austin Healey (as BT Sport)

HAR v WOR: Nick Heath

EXE v NOR: Nick Mullins, Damian Welch & Andy Goode (as BT Sport)
LEIC v SAR: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Austin Healey (as BT Sport)

WAS v SAL: Jonathan Harris-Bass
LIR v GLO: Tom Skippings (reporting)

Other full-match commentaries on premiershiprugby.tv:
LIR v GLO: Seb Hutchinson

RBS 6 Nations – Round 5 on BBC One

Wales v Italy (Sat 19 Mar)
Jason Mohammad live at the Principality Stadium with Martyn Williams, Keith Wood and Carlo del Fava.
Commentary: Andrew Cotter, Carlo del Fava & Jonathan Davies
Reporter: Ross Harries

Ireland v Scotland (Sat 19 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Alastair Eykyn & Andy Nicol

France v England (Sat 19 Mar)
John Inverdale live at the Stade de France with Jeremy Guscott, Mike Tindall, Thomas Castaignède and Michael Cheika.
Commentary: Eddie Butler, Brian Moore & Mike Tindall
Reporter: Sonja McLaughlan


RBS 6 Nations – Round 5 on ITV

Wales v Italy (Sat 19 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Martin Gillingham

Ireland v Scotland (Sat 19 Mar)
Mark Pougatch live at the Aviva Stadium with Lawrence Dallaglio, Brian O’Driscoll and Sir Ian McGeechan. Martin Bayfield pitchside with Maggie Alphonsi.
Commentary: Nick Mullins, Scott Hastings & Gordon D’Arcy
Reporter: Martin Bayfield

France v England (Sat 19 Mar)
Highlights commentary: Miles Harrison
Reporter: Gabriel Clarke

Highlights Show
Jill Douglas in the studio with Gareth Thomas, Conor O'Shea and Ugo Monye.


RBS 6 Nations – Round 5 on S4C

Wales v Italy (Sat 19 Mar)
Gareth Roberts at the Principality Stadium with Deiniol Jones, Andrew Coombs and Dwayne Peel.
Commentary: Gareth Charles, Gwyn Jones & Dwayne Peel
Reporter: Catrin Heledd

Friday 25 March- Rugby Union on BBC Two Northern Ireland

Glasgow Warriors v Ulster- Stephen Watson presents. With commentary from Jim Neilly and Tony McWhirter.