Also Eddie's shtick of 'T-R-Y' etc is definitely an affectation. If you back to the Wigan v Bath cross-code match (footage on youtube) he's one of the commentators on that. Actually, he's perfectly fine. When he concentrates on calling the game and not all the other he's not bad.

That said, there definitely needs to be a sorting-out of commentary teams with both the BBC & Sky. I'd love to see

BBC

Presenter: Claire Balding
Studio Summarisers: Jon Wilkin & Robbie Paul
Commentator: Dave Woods
Expert Summariser: Brian Noble / Jonathan Davies

SKY

Presenter: Bill Arthur
Studio Summarisers: Barrie McDermott, & Shaun MacRae
Commentator: Andrew Voss
Expert Summariser: Brian Carney

I think the world cup coverage on Premier & the BBC has been a breath of fresh air. Sky has become stale & has not moved the art forward much. The problem I see is that as pointed out Sky own us lock stock & barrel & will only put in as much effort as they think they can get away with (look how little coverage the world cup has had on sky news?). They are not champions of our game they realy don't seem to care if we grow or not we are just a filler for when wendy ball is not on air, Just look at the moving games to thursday nights that shows how much we mean to them. I would love Premier sports & the BBC work together to put in a rival bid when the next TV rights round is on, To get us back on terestial TV once a week would do as much good as all the cash from Sky has done. I just hope the viewing figures & the good experiance from the tournament starts a few TV men thinking.

I disagree. I like Clarke

You are suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome obviously.

I like Phill Clarke when he is not talking about Wigan

Me too. Also a very nice bloke in person.

don't get the Clarke hate personally. Although some of his stuff has become rather irrelevant.

Eddie is the worst imo, like an annoying uncle you would be glad to see just once a year, if that, to talk about RL.

Can't see the problem with Eddie and Stevo, they don't say much different to Andrew Voss. Voss mentioned someone's ribs being on the floor and putting BBQ sauce on them the other week, if Stevo had have said that he would have been slaughtered on these boards as talking nonsense again.

And I can't believe the subject heading is classing it as important.

Eddie and Stevo (and Clarkey) love they game as much as we do so let's give them a break.

Exactly what I thought.

I didn't question Phil Clarke's character or off-set personality, or whether he was a nice bloke in person. I was questioning his value to the telecast.

Somebody sign Mr Voss ASAP.

Phil Clarke is terrible. Carney used to be good but they've beaten all the humour and insight out of him recently.