Originally Posted by LOSG:
“Outside of the Cardiff Blues he has little to ZERO knowledge of the other teams he "commentates" on. I can only assume (and hope) that he'll be used solely for the Blues' games on the red button.”
“Outside of the Cardiff Blues he has little to ZERO knowledge of the other teams he "commentates" on. I can only assume (and hope) that he'll be used solely for the Blues' games on the red button.”
I'm sorry, but that particular notion is a load of rubbish - Rick quite clearly has a similar knowledge of the other three Welsh regions as he does the Blues, as well as the teams from lower down the WRU structure he covers for Radio Wales and the Sunday Scrum V show. He watches all four regions live at least once a month and clearly follows the form of the players as well as the topical issues surrounding the teams. He's a Blues fan but other than jokey references to this I don't get the impression he has any greater knowledge of or interest in them than any of the other three regions. For example you are more likely to hear him talk about playing in the same team as Joe Bearman of the Ospreys, formerly the Dragons, than you will hear him talk about something along those lines regarding the Blues.
Given the commentary roster Sky Sports already has, one would assume they will use Rick mostly on coverage of the Welsh regions and maybe other Pro 12 teams behind the red button during the group phase, which is no different to what he does now. I can't see the problem with this but clearly he's not someone you enjoy listening to.
On the note on Scrum V's red button coverage, while I'd like to the main English language feed to be available more often on Freeview, I can sympathise with BBC Wales as to why it isn't. You have to take into account that viewers in Wales get the same red button options on Freeview, so providing a main commentary stream ahead of Welsh or the RedZone would be duplication to them.



