I fail to see how Dave woods will improve things.

a couple of posters have taken the p1ss out of him for telling us which amature clubs players came from but i for one think it's great that he does/did at least he's giving the clubs that brought these players up a mention we wer'e all amatures wern't we?

Ray French has forgotten more than most people on here know about the game of RL, and should be respected.

Sorry but that whole professional northerner style is cringemakingly awful. When Waring went we had a chance to modernise the image of the game, but with Ray French the whole flat cap and whippets view of the sport was further embedded.

He is responsible for the "dark ages" view of RL for anyone South of Sheffield.

Hopefully he will take his Flat Cap, Terrier and drive as far as he can before falling into the sea.

They're all awful from the BBC crew to the Sky massiv'.

I either watch it at home with the sound down or with some music on.

AFAIK he doesn't put it on, so I'd baulk at calling him a "professional northerner". It's just who he is.

The logical choice some years ago was John Champion, before ITV lured him away with European football commentary.

He's no more stereotypically northern than Barrie & Terry on Sky's Championship coverage.

Like it or not, its a northern sport.

More than likely anyone who has a good understanding of the game (theoretically an important quality) will be from these parts

By "Modernise" do you mean get someone with a posh accent to commentate so we can pretend RL is not primarily a northern sport?

If Joanna Lumley did the CC coverage, it would not make more kids down south want to play RL.

We ARE a northern sport. That is the strenth of our game.

I am all for expansion but lets not be pretentious about who or what we are.

The steretype of our players turning up for training on dark Northern Nights wearing flat caps, smoking woodbines and their faces smudged with coal is frankly a much more attractive stereotype than Tarquin and his chums turning up for traininng at their club after an afternoon at the golf course to find a pleasant bubndle of £50 notes stuffed into their boots (wink wink)

What about Clair Balding, she's possibly changed the image of the game somewhat

How & in what way?

Don't get me wrong I like her on the TV and she seems to show a genuine interest in RL but what has changed in actual RL matters since she started doing the CC coverage?

Your stereotyping of the non-north is horrendous

what's all this northern bollox?

Ray french is just a crap commentator. A squeaky voiced RAT.

They just need a decent commentator doesn't matter where he's from.