BACK OFF!

Woods may be a genius. In his pre match waffle he trapped me with his brilliant wordplay.

He said we would be able to admire Chase's [usubliminal skills[/u. At first I thought he was just a tongue tied commentator, excited by the close proximity of rugby legend Jonathan Davies. But then it dawned upon me that he was playing games with our heads. How could we admire skills that we could not be conscious of? Chase was doing things at a subconscious, subliminal, level...wow. Could Wood see these skills while the rest of us were blind to them?

At the same time as Wood was weaving his magic the welsh wizard, Davies, had his own distinctly post modern agenda. His constant, ruthless and unswerving, repitition of the obvious started to strip TGG of its meaning. By telling us people should ..tackle..pass..kick the ball or that they have just tackled...passed or kicked the ball over and over again he almost renders the words meaningless.

We are at a commentating tipping point. On the way out are the comic mispronunciations & anecdotes of Ray French and the Cannon and Ball offerings of Eddie & Stevo or Mcdermott & O'Connor. In Wood and Davies we have intellectual giants willing to pull rugby league commentary into the 21st century.

I don't have Sky Sports partly because of Eddie And Stevo. Jonathan Davies was a fine all round player and always makes very salient points. The wind was very important last weekend, particularly in open grounds such as Odsal and Wakefield.

the fith law of thermodynamics states: Jonathan Davies can do no wrong.

I would like SKY or the BBC bring over a pair of Aussie comentators just to show how it can be done, That is professional without the endless trys at humour by Eddie & Stevo & the stuttering of Ray French (great bloke, rubbish caller of then game) I do like the comentry I get with the NRL games on chanel 433.

Watching the Wigan/Bradford game on BBC i player I noticed it took Ray French a good 15 seconds or so to comment on the Raynor/Tomkins incident.Obviously he was unsure what had happened and waited for Kear to make the first move before interjecting with his own remarks.What he is watching in front of him God only knows.

To be fair, if you're watching from the commentary box at Odsal even with perfect vision you need a pair of binoculars to make out the players.

I just love some of the completely wrong names they come up with...

"James Leuluai" was a favourite from the Wigan v Bulls game.

Hmm....

Coming from the fool who questioned Kear and Mattersons ability to coach for extra time that's brilliant.

So when did you lead two teams to CCup victories - what have you achieved in the game - you are the definition of a troll.

I've no problem with JD's commentary except he always sounds so negative and depressed. Everything is always rubbish defending, not doing the basics, not using their brains, etc.

And when he does say something positive, I keep expecting him to finish his sentence with 'tidy' or 'crackin' - have I been watching too much Gavin and Stacey?

I don't particularly like listening to Davies, but I actually have no problem with him being critical of what he sees in front of him. He played the game at the very highest level and probably expects to see high quality play in matches he commentates on. I personally am fed up listening to commentators who accept mediocrity and poor play without mentioning it, and who spend their time either telling us what fantastic play we have just seen or complaining about the referee.

To be even 'fairer',if you are a professional commentator working for the British Broadcasting Corporation the least you can do is make an effort to relay information quickly and accurately to the licence paying viewers.If there is a fair distance from the commentary position to some parts of the playing area then call the action whilst viewing the monitor or indeed do use binoculars,like the master Ray Warren,who never seemed to have a problem at the SCG.