I watched the documentary last night about mr waring and found it a great programme about a rugby league man who published the game game to the whole of the country .....


He got some stick from the 1895 group (mainly toothless saints fans) who just ripped him to bits. I thought this was unfair given that over 30 years he gave rugby league great coverage and for the whole great coverage......

I was not around in that era (so can't generally say what he was like or what he did for RL) I was wondering what everyone thought abount him and his contribution to our great game???????

"It's an up an underrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
"He's going for an early bath"
"Murphy,going as fast as i've seen him go for a while"(commentating on wembley '74).
Waring............a character indeed,if only we had him now!

I think there are two Eddie Warings....

The first was a great journalist, innovative administrator and man who sought to popularise rugby league particularly by realising the potential for tv coverage.

The second was a cliched self parodying stereotypical thick northerner who had lost touch with the game and gave rambling aimless tv commentaries of poor quality infuriating rugby league fans.

From 1940s to the late 50s the former dominated but time (in my opinion) did not treat him kindly and by the end of his career the BBC had let him go on far too long and he seemed an embarassment to himself and the sport.

Sounds like stevo!

Agree 100%

To be fair, Waring obviously had some kind of "mental" problem going on, at the end of his commentating career.
The BBC should have took him to one side, and said "Thanks for your efforts over the years, Eddie, but now it's time for a change, as we can see you're not well anymore". A shame, that a bloke who gave his life to our game, should be remembered as a " rambling 'idiot' " (not my thoughts), at the end of his career.

I watched that doc, when it was first broadcast a few months back, and the ones who brought our game into disrepute, were the toothless Stains idiots (again, imo).

Mind you, this is RL, and it's fans wouldn't be happy if they didn't have someone on TV who they could throw nonstop abuse at. Actually, we've currently got 5 (French, Gration, Hemmings, Stephenson and Clarke). These abusers are spoilt for choice.

Waring was a Patsy installed by the BBC Yawnion boys to make our game look poor.

French was for them an ideal replacement. They must have thought it was Christmas come early.

Mind you nothing much has changed - Saturdays final coverage !!! non-senical interviews with non-playes whilst game is in progress !!!!

I detested Eddy Waring.

For years he made a good living by ridiculing our game and the players he wasn't fit to tie the boots of.

He set progress in our game back years and really found his true media niche whe "Its A Knockout" started. A clown !!

The good old BBC, true to form, kept him on for years after his retirement, squeezing every last penny out of the name, a la Ray French and the motor racing commentator whose name escapes me.

The only commentator I hated equally was Bill McLaren the RU chap whose every other word was an over-exagerated statement of how wonderful or magnificent a pretty average kick was.

Eddy Warng was a buffoon who did our great game a massive and lasting dis-service. Good riddence !!!

As a commentator he became embarrassing towards the end, but to say that he was a buffoon is completely wrong. I suggest you get a copy of his recently re-issued book, 'Rugby League, the Great Ones,' and you will find that he had a tremendous knowledge and love of RL.

His books and Eddie Waring annuals and reports on tours were among the best of their kind and even his early commentary was not bad....but , as stated, it suited the beeb to keep rugby league in a Northern ghetto and Waring was ideal in this agenda. To have a commentator who was essentially senile put the game back years

Ray French is a different creature. Great reporter and writer and with a real love for and knowledge of the game...but as a tv commentator....not as good as his writing and again it suited the beeb to have an aging Northerner.......

Eddie Waring was a rugby league man who got slated for being a stereotype.

Claire Balding is as far removed from that stereotype as you can possibly get and gets slated for not being a proper rugby league person.

Damned if they do...