If you notice the Union commentators hardly ever criticise their sport,even if somebody nearly takes a blokes head off there is always some justification or excuse.Even if no tries are scored and its kicking ping pong they still say its a marvellous game.

Do they proclaim each season the best ever though

The commentary for the tri-nations game this weekend was just as you describe. I actually hate the Sky Union team, they make me want to vomit, especially as neither of them seem to have a clue as to what's happening on the pitch. The BBC have it nailed. Eddie Butler knows the game inside out and can be as flowery as needed and he is complimented perfectly by Brian Moore. It falls apart a bit in the studio, but if you hit the red button after the normal commentary finishes you might be treated to the sight and sound of Brian Moore (who makes Boris Johnson look well turned out) laying into people.
I like Eddie Hemmings, I think he does what he does very well, but he needs help, and he's not getting it. I think it's also Sky policy to highlight "forward" passes etc as the directors seems to have it all queued up immediately.

Yes agreed. Stevo's so obsessed with penalties and criticising players. It's a shame Cullen's not got the time to be a permenant commentator as i think he's superb at it. So is Tony Rea and Shaun Mcrae.

Every time Stevo say's 'stanza' it drives me mad.... SHUT UP YOU IDIOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn't Stanza a paragraph or something.. our lass keeps laughing at him when he says it..

He's chelping again in his column in the league express i agree about inconsistent disciplinary panels but his ranting about "thugby league" is like a lot of stevo isms OTT!

The game's hirachy won't be happy with negative comments like 'thugby league' the man wants pensioning off....

Made me laugh (as it always does) when he was banging on about how the ARL cleaned up the Aussie game by banning Les Boyd for 12 months and how the game is now as clean as a whistle as a result. Did he watch SOO last Wednesday?

It's fair to say that the NRL's disciplinary system is in a far better state than the RFLs though.

Completely agree mate,the lack of any consistency and the "behind closed doors" sentencing make ours a laughing stock in comparison.

A stanza is a verse of poetry. Can't see what it has to do with rugby!!

I did, and thought the last 150 seconds of the match were the best of the series.

Like so many of Stevo's cliches, it comes from Oz. The one I particularly dislike is " for mine".

Exactly... so why the h£ll does he say it ???

I hate the phrase, "chime into the line."

I might be wrong, but I think they just made it up. I've never seen a full back carry a bell!

Feel free to correct me.

Did anybody hear Stevo keep sayin "sufficient " every 2 minutes during the saints game is that his new word or something

The ARL and the RFL were significantly cleaned up when they started having video at all games. Almost overnight the high, late hit which guys like John Holmes were the frequent recipient of, became virtually extinct. Of course there are still players too stupid (Sonny Nickel) to realise there's a camera on them, but mostly that part of the game is dead.
At SL level the game is as clean as I've ever seen it, skillfull players are well protected. Things can always be more consistant but I don't really know what Stevo is on at the moment.