Agree about Eorl. In fact I have given up with Sky. Turn down the sound on the telly and use the radio instead.

I'd actually never thought of that until I read your post. You're spot on. There needs to be a more technical analysis of PLAY to the commentary, doesn't there. Good point.

It does sadden me that Stevo has become such an embarrassment, given everything that he's given to the sport. But he has. He's a caricature of himself now, and I'm actually embarrassed for him a lot of the time. His commentary is virtually all catchphrase with very little content, and along with Eddie he is intent on focusing most of his attention on negatives (errors, refereeing decisions, infringements) when they really should be talking the game up.

Phil Clarke is a terrible, terrible thing for broadcasting. For a long time he was partisan, but basically OK. Then, for reasons which no rational human can explain, he decided to reinvent himself as some kind of professor of rugby. His existence now revolves around shabby interpretation of inadequate numerical data. Best example being his "key performance indicators" which helpfully tell us that the team that does best on metres, clean breaks, missed tackles etc, more often than not wins the game. Amazing what you can do now with technology isn't it?

I like Carney and Wells. Tony Rea is always good value, and I don't mind John Kear for a bit as a guest.

On the radio, Eorl Crabtree is always very good. Is Jason Demitriou still around? He used to do decent punditry on West Yorkshire Sport as well.

A 'good professor' (like Koukash) or a 'bad one'..?

Incidentally, I have no understanding of those KPI graphics - was there an explanation when they were first used on what they actually meant? If so, I missed it. I assume green means 'better', yellow means 'even' and red means 'worse' but other than that, they have never meant anything.

There is no explanation how they decide that 'green, yellow, green' = '36 point margain' whereas 'red, green, yellow' = 'half a pint of shandy'. The whole thing means nothing!

But yes, it generally only illuminates us to the fact that the team who are winning 'should' be winning. Hmm...

Or are the traffic light things not the KPI's and you are on about something else..?

This is the draw-back of not having Sky and tending only to see Rugby live (or the odd CC game on Beeb).