The man is so anti Leeds it is ridiculous. He manages to recover himself mostly and say something that even he can see is true, but in match comments when Leeds are playing are so biased. I know that Barrie and Stevo tend to be supportive of Leeds but their not biased. Clarke will see very decision that is marginal as needing to go against Leeds.

Clarke does favour wigan.

When he's commenting, if wigan are under the pump he'll turn it round on the other team ''every team has to deal with adversity and X team are only 8 points in front, the momentum will swing and I THINK wigan will post more points when that happens''.

But if roles are reversed he says something like ''Wigan are looking very good here Eddeh, even if the momentum swings I think they've taken too much juice out of X team......''

Basically whatever the situation, no matter what, he paints it in a positive light for wigan. Even if they are well beaten he'll paint it as a positive for the rest of the season. Of course he praises the opposition when they win but it's a constant stream of ''good situation for wigan'' which spews from his mouth, which you don't get from him for any other team.

Jon Wilkin has far more personal experience of bad days and crushing defeats at the hands of Leeds than Clarke, but he manages to park that when he's commenting on TV. Maybe if he's doing TV work after he's retired and Leeds play Saints he might struggle but let's wait and see.

Have to agree with this. Given how much grief Leeds have given Wilkin during the course of his playing career (and how much of a w*nker I think he is on the pitch) I have to give the bloke a lot of respect for how he conducts himself in the role of TV pundit

I like Wilkin as a pundit

Phil Clarke; "From every other part of the field Kevin Sinfield is a world class goal kicker, apart from here, 5 yards in from the right hand touch line".

Kevin Sinfield: kicks the goal.

Phil Clarke thought that he owned the rugby gods until Magsy shoved it up him big style on saturday
We wont win another game eh Phil?

Clarke's paid to offer opinions on things, which he does.

That it winds so many up is to an extent to his credit. It generates discussion and conversation about the game.

Unlike some on the Sky commentary (McDermott, O'Connor, Stevo, Hemmings) the coverage would be duller for his absence.

The thing is though Andy that it's not always opinion, there is far too much desperation in his voice for it to be opinion when he is saying things along the "that's a Leeds knock on", or "he's never got that down" etc. But it's the way he says things rather than what he says.

You can't tell me you honestly don't think he is bias against Leeds ? It's not a wind up, it's blatant, and makes him sound like a baby who has lost his rattle when he is almost crying, trying in any way he can to convince the others on the commentary team he is right, and the decision must go against Leeds.

One thing for sure is that he is in no way as vocal, nor as critical when it comes to any other club, in fact he is fairly dull when commentating on games that don't involve Leeds so I fail to see how all this should be to his credit, when as a summariser he should show nothing but impartiality which we all know he doesn't....even you.

So he's Sky Sports equivalent of AP? I think it's ridiculous to suggest he's paid to wind up the viewers and subscribers.

He's paid to offer a degree of analysis and expertise along with opinion. He's supposed to offer more than an average Wigan fan from the terrace, given his background as a player. That he is unable to hide his obvious bias and is often so fundamentally wrong (Salford to win/Leeds didn't play well at Wembley etc) is not to the broadcasters credit at all. That his colleagues took such great delight in embarrassing him about his nonsense shows how much they think of him.

The only conversation he generates is what a biased fool he is. Do you think Sky and the game should be happy about that?

If he is doing that at Sky's bidding then he is prostituting himself and doing the game a great disservice and showing disrespect to RL fans .I think it's his way ,he can't change from being born and bred into that Wigan culture which is being discussed eslewhere

Totally agree.

He should be able to keep out the obvious dislike he has of Leeds from his analysis if not his predictions.

so would i but would you expect them to to say any different if they thought differently?

has kev ever said a wrong word , even guarded on the shambolically entertaining rugby am

anyways poss with evolution rather than revolution mc d has his medals for the table.

I'll always prob remember 99 for being 1st major trophy though john player had all same teams , and for prob seeing our first decent pack in years