Originally Posted by Akilduff:
“Eddie Butler is rugby correspondent with the Observer - I'm sure he also contributes quite a bit to BBC Wales, who gave him his first broadcasting experience with a slot on the old "Rugby Special Wales"”
Not so much these days.
Eddie's career has taken a funny direction - he's the number one rugby union commentator across BBC network TV but does precious little on BBC Wales, who screen regular rugby union unlike the rest of the network.
Eddie used to front BBC Wales' live Magners League matches (under the Scrum V Live banner), but he and Graham Thomas (who then presented the Scrum V Sunday magazine show) were replaced by Gareth Lewis in the summer of 2006 after a souring in relations between BBC Wales and the WRU over Mike Ruddock's departure as national coach - click
this link for more information.
These days, he contributes Gabriel Clarke-style reports to the Scrum V magazine programme and does the odd punditry stint on the Sunday show as well, but otherwise that's about it.
Gareth Charles does the vast majority of the BBC Wales commentaries and that was the way it was when Eddie was a regular on Scrum V.
I think Eddie, Nick Mullins and Andrew Cotter could all potentially be involved in ESPN's Guinness Premiership coverage should they be given the green light to work for them alongside their BBC commitments.
Most of Eddie's work for BBC Wales, the Guardian and the Observer could be fit around working on live games on Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays.
As for Nick and Andrew, while they are fairly regular rugby union broadcasters (and occasional broadcasters on other sports) for Five Live, they are by no means used every weekend.
Five Live also use Ian Robertson, Alistair Eykyn and Ed Marriage as rugby union reporters so it is not as if they are essential staff on their mostly non-commentary coverage of the sport. On a typical Premiership weekend, it could be possible for Nick/Andrew to commentate on a Saturday game for ESPN then report on one for Five Live on Sunday, or vice versa.