I must say that BT Sport coverage of the Aviva Premiership is so far ahead of Sky's coverage of Super League it's not funny. Educated debate and intelligent discussion in comparison to Sky's usual diet of screaming, shouting and balling over mountains made out of molehills.

Looking forward to seeing how Sam fares on his debut on Friday night.

Against a 15 man defence with no 10m gap?

He'll run the ball in hard, perhaps occasionally flattening a would-be tackler before being engulfed. But not that often.
Defence-wise he'll put in the odd big hit. If he comes on at around 60 minutes he might make five or six tackles.

In the eyes of the headline writers, his will have been the outstanding contribution.

Enjoy.

The camera work on Sky's coverage of SL is excellent, so is the in game editing and far outweighs any other UK company (Channel 9's coverage in Oz is unsurpassable). It's the so called 'experts' they employ to summarize the games that let their coverage down. The drag everything down to the intellectual level of your average Daily Mail reader.

Which TV company was broadcasting the 4Ns from Aus to the Beeb? I thought the camera work was shocking.

Sky's game day coverage hits the same buzz-phrases and manufactured controversies as it has for 15 years. If it ever worked, it certainly doesn't work now. But the main players (producer, commentator, summarisor) are so entrenched there's no stopping them. Honestly think Sky's coverage is the single largest thing holding this game back in this country. The BBC's coverage, which was equally embarrassing in the French/Murphy days, has learned lessons, changed, and is absolutely miles ahead.

Spot on.

The BBC have two producers on their team who are avid Rugby League fans, who are well aware of the poor image of RL that the SKY guys portray, and aim to show RL in it's best light. This, along with having a proper commentry team who are there purely to commentate and inform the audience, a separate presenter and some good analysis in the studio mean their coverage has improved.

SKY is awful to watch on the otherhand. Five voices during the game, bickering with eachother, informing the audience of nothing. A total refresh is needed, except for the analysis with Jon Wells, he's the silver lining.

The problem with SKY is that the main producer isn't a Rugby League person. They don't understand the game well enough to understand the garbage that pours out of Eddie, Stevo & Clarkeys mouths, or give freee reign to Clark to bore us with his traffic light stats. The producer they use is inheriting their production setup, inheriting the presenters and the format, and will continue as is until they move onto something else. There simply isn't the appetite at the moment to ive it the overhaul it needs.

He won't be running against a 15 man defence, in the same way that he never ran against a 13 man defence in RL.

Does Sky's coverage of SL pander to what it perhaps considers to be an extremely thick, loud and gormless sector of its subscriber demographic?

I'm of the opinion that Sky's coverage is far more embarrassing than what the BBC has ever produced, even when the BBC coverage was at its most patronising.

they would be spot on in your case

I think there's a genuine air listening to the Sky coverage of a clique of mates talking about the game down the pub. The presentation lacks the polish you get from the BBC, where you feel like you're being talked to by a bunch of broadcasting professionals - even the ex-players they use are more eloquent and intelligent than those rolled out by Sky.

Stevo is the main problem, the same old every game, silly penalties NO try etc , opinionated dinosaur, throw in the Sky/Wigan love affair they need a revamp but i won't be holding my breath,

Whether is Mark Chapman or Claire Balding before him both are broadcasting professionals both appear to have more knowledge about the sport than Eddie and their presentational skills are on a different stratosphere. They are adaptable used to flitting from sport to sport but giving each the required degree of gravitas. Could you imagine Eddie doing Royal Ascot!!

I'd be pretty satisfied with the BBC were they to ditch their worst - Davies - and sign up Sky's best - Wells. Even so, their team isn't bad as it stands.

I believe both Chappers and Balding do/did a fantastic job. Balding seemed to know what she was talking about and Chapman has a true passion for RL. When you put them up against Eddie and Stevo it's like comparing a filet mignon to a BigMac.

I don't know if it is because of shame, embarrassment or the fact they'd get completely ridiculed, but I have yet to find anyone who believes that Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber do a decent job.

Astonishingly, there was a thread on the VT a few months back in which a couple of posters expressed that view. I'm fairly sure they were being serious.