I do not care who is the commentator has long has the rugby is good that’s all that matters

Do you do that deliberately? I can't make my mind up.

#bringbackthemarginmeter

Bugger, beat me to it!!!

It’s all wrong and has been for years.

It’s too late to change Eddie. He’s forgotten he’s a commentator and just seems to be there to stoke controversy and give us his non-expert opinion. He’s been involved in the sport for over a quarter of a century yet he still acts as if every rule is brand new to him. He’s also obsessed with sticking the word “the” in front of everything. “The Leeds Rhinos”, not simply “Leeds” or “Leeds Rhinos”, “The English”, “The Catalans”, “The Saints”, “The xxx club” as in “The Warrington club” or “the Wigan club” instead of just simply saying “Warrington” and “Wigan”.

Barrie and Terry bring nothing to the table apart from a typical thick Northerner stereotype.

Phil Clark only pipes up when he’s being pro-Wigan or positive about a player who’s signed up to his Brother’s agency.

Wells gets everyone’s names wrong and is too loud and speaks too quickly but he’s better than the others.

Cummins is a clueless hasbeen ref who makes a fool of himself and the sport with his continual incorrect ramblings.

Carney is good and is actually better on the Gaelic footy when he’s not surrounded by Bafoons.

The whole thing needs a shake up, a clean slate and just give Carney the presenter gig and bring in a whole new team of one commentator and one co-commentator, one pitchside reporter and then have different people in the studio each week including coaches and captains of other teams who aren’t playing that night to bring some up to date and intelligent/insightful talk to the panel for once. Maybe keep Wells in the studio instead of sticking him on his own outside so he doesn’t think he has to shout.

But Sky don’t give a really. As has been proved in all the programming we’ve lost over the years and the money they [don’t] put into the game.

"The Black and Whites"

I've said this before but how unprofessional does it sound if the lead commentator doesn't know (or pretends to not know) the rules just to accommodate a former referee?

Be thankful, without them there would be no live rugby league on tv - as annoying as they are.

Eddie has been a great commentator but his time is up, last night during the two biggest moments of the game, Ryan Hall's try and Atkins' miss, he was rambling about something else both times and almost missed the action.

Do we even need to criticise Barrie and Terry any more? I wouldn't mind if they at least brought enthusiasm but they don't even do that. O'Connor is the worst colour commentator I have ever heard in any sport.

The biggest problem is the number of voices in a game. Just have a simple two man team with the odd comment from a studio guest. That's why we end up with this "banter" because there's so many guys there. You don't need 5/6/7 voices in one game all fighting to get a word in.

BBC paid £300M for the 6 nations rugby union over 6 years, that doesn't even give them all of the Scotland/Wales games and only one, maybe two of the England games.
£200M over 5 years for a full seasons SL is a huge difference in value.
Free to air BBC can get over 4 million for a prime time Saturday afternoon England RU game but that's only once a year, maybe twice (I'm not sure how the deal worked as to which year gets what) but the overall exposure/filling a slot on TV works out massively cheaper for the BBC to take on RL instead of union, plus it'd get rid of s like Inverdale, Butler and all the rest of the union noddies/hangers on that fawn over yet another 37 minutes of drudgery filled carp with 32 'phases' of fat lads falling over burning up the last 5 minutes of a match.

1. BBC get England Away IIRC......ITV get England at Home, so 2 one year, 3 the next in terms of England games.
2. It is, but the BBC are in no way interested in or mandated to show a domestic sport league competition and neither would they want the cost of 100+ outside broadcast set ups etc.....
3. BBC have got 9 million for England Union games. It is popular and therefore they perceive it gives them value for money
4. Yep......without a doubt many RL fans do find Union as dull as dishwater and the commentators as dim as dog turds, but alas, the GENERAL PUBLIC still tune in in their millions to watch it.

ITV got involved in the 6 Nations a few years back, matching the BBC's money. They did this to head off a bid from SKY sports to take the 6 nations........ If RL is the wonderful product that you think it is, how come the people responsible for the 2 largest FTA stations in the country aren't beating a path to Red Hall?

We are on SKY and the best we can hope for in a few years is that BT show some interest and maybe drive the price up. The real deal is the RFL and the clubs getting into a situation where they can offer live games to online subscribers and enough of them to interest advertisers and sponsors.....

Like many others i watch with the sound turned off.

The problem is either sky or nothung. I've not seen a queue of tv companies waitingvto outbid them

Totally agree, I think a team of Brian Carney and Barrie could make a good commentary, in terms of the classic commentary duo Carney to do the job of a play by play commentary with Barrie to chip in with something a bit less polished or a criticism/praise of a player in the way Neville or Carra does for the Prem on SKY

Also recon either of the touchline reporters could do a better job as the main commentator than Eddie Hemmings

And for goodness sake get rid of Stuart Cummings, the others in the studio MUST know the rules!

Joe Arundel. Arun-del. Not A-run-del.

Hemmings is a dog of a "journalist". A proper hack.

Agree with most of what everyone is saying - the sky production is very lazy and stale. Wells and Carney are decent in the roles they play, the rest need sacking off.
Eddie is as flat as a fart nowadays. The Ryan Hall try is a great example, he just talked through it and tried to raise his tone as he crossed the line, but it was too little, too late. He tried to sound excited, but you can tell it's forced - it's like he's bored of it.
I've mentioned Dan Ginnane previously, he commentates for Triple M radio in Aus, he's a fantastic caller. He calls the moves, and knows when to rise for the big moments- he makes the games sound enthralling. I'd love him over here. Vossy is another who makes the game sound fun and exciting - his love for the game shines through, I just don't get that with Eddie.