BuchanRoad says...

Really - Hugh Bladen is well past his sell-by date. Stransky way too crictical of current players. Yes, Bob may have a go at the refs or say something which may not suit all, but at least he has the balls to do it. Pearce is well-spoken, articulate and thankfully (having not been an ex-Bok himself) has the ability to not be a 'neville knowall' as to why a team may be playing badly. We have suffered so long having commentators who can't converse properly in the English language, get names wrong, bumble along (Bladen springs to mind + ex-players who can't converse half correctly). For so many years, SA rugby supporters have been embarrassed by our local commentators - it's a relief we have 2 well-spoken, articulate commentators now (Pearce and Skinstad).

Posted 06:42 18th August 2011

Miladiou says...

Commentators are a bit of a difficult one. Effectively if you are not listening to your own commentators all others will seam biased. The thing that annoys me is that in the Anglo Saxon / English speaking world there is a pretence that commentators should be unbiased so given the fact that most commentators love their Rugby and their country they make do with constant sniping and moaning at the refs ensues. For me the very very worst are the Kiwi's (apart from Marshall who is excellent). Followed by the Aussies, although they at least try and be entertaining.

This 'unbiased but really not wink wink nudge nudge' is just very annoying. In France our commentators are basically full on fans. No pretence of even handedness and therefore no underhand snide comments and general moaning. Just plenty of 'ALLEZZZZZZZ' and 'OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIII' if we score. But also I find our guys much more able to applaud good play from others whereas certain Kiwi and Aussie comms will just not accept any other team can ever play better without cheating. Much more honest less annoying but would be unbearable for a non French fan (if they understood French). Basically like listening to the football Fanzone commentary on Sky!!! Not sure if all that makes sense but there you go.

Posted 19:15 17th August 2011

ChrisInCrete says...

It doesn't matter who does it but for me one of the worst commentating offences (worse than bias) is blatting on about something when the referee is talking. Can't the refs (or producer) get a red button that blocks out the commentator when we're getting a decision/explantation.

Posted 15:20 16th August 2011

suilven says...

You guys are all quite lucky -having commentators biased for "their" team. There's a Scottish commentator (can't remember name!) who is definitely against anything Scotland ever does, tries to do, defeats, wins (we do sometimes y'know) & players. Prob anti the weather too.

Eddie Butler drives me nuts -pompous& blind. At least Brian Moore's sort of funny (& had a miserable childhood, so I try to be forgiving!)

Posted 10:58 16th August 2011

startledwombat says...

Glad to read this Loose Pass column's comments about the South African commentators as it provides a supplement to, and a wider perspective on, a topic that was part of the discussion thread on the Aus/SA match report page. In which a number of folk here, me included, had roundly criticised the Aus commentators.

Posted 09:00 16th August 2011

fozza says...

I've never really had a problem with Barnes and Harrison... they're totally middle of the road. They're not overly bias (Jiffy for example, I didn't know that was his nickname!!!) and they're not overly opinionated (Brian Moore for example, although I'm one of the few people who actually likes his commentary... Can you imagine any of Aussie commentators who shoot at referees every game going on a refereeing course?).

Still, I am somewhat underwhelmed by ITV's plan... Main commentators: Nick Mullins, Simon Ward, Martin Gillingham and Bob Symonds.

Co Commentators: Alan Quinlan, Scott Hastings, Phil Vickery and Andy Gomarsall.

Dunno whether the rest of you will be listening to these dulcet tones (in 2003 we had some of the Aussie commentators.... great...) but this will be different at least.

Posted 08:16 16th August 2011

KiwiKev says...

@JayStarr

Take your meds before you stroke out! Also, what will your new screen name be - StarrJay?

Posted 18:35 15th August 2011

jaysonspeer says...

@JayStarr: Fair enough! See you tomorrow - LOL! ;-)

Posted 16:36 15th August 2011

JayStarr says...

I'd rather stick pencils in my ears than listen to Hugh Bladen and Joel Stransky's nasal-fest for the whole World Cup! I'll have Bob Skinstad any day - after years of listening to Bladen's drunken mumbling, he's like a breath of fresh air!

Skinstad is a fantastic commentator, always very insightful and always objective - he made a point of saying he was one-eyed at that moment, because normally he is not. The reason why he was, was because they were commentating for South Africa - so I have no idea why you heard it. What do you think we feel like when we listen to Australian, English or Welsh commentators when we play them..? It's hillarious. Even worse is listening to the Formula 1 commentators - it's like Lewis Hamilton is the only driver on the track..!

Biased commentating does not make South Africans "arrogant" (or whatever your accussation is this time) - it is natural for all commentators to do so. We have to deal with it, why can't you?

By the way - Springboks unskilled, unfit and lumbering..? Unskilled!? So you're saying players like Bismarck du Plessis, Beast Mtawarira, Victor Matfield, Heinrich Brussouw, Pierre Spies, Fourie du Preez, Jean de Villiers, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana lack the necessary skills to play at this level..!? Try "lacking match fitness" - most of these guys haven't played rugby for 8 weeks... and haven't played as a unit for 2 years - but if that ball which brushed against Jaque Fourie's arm was 1 inch down, they would've still beaten Australia - even while playing at 50% of their potential!

You know what, I am so sick of constantly having to defend the Springboks on this site against the ignorant conspiracy theories and false accussations from people with this "big bad Springboks" mentality... I've had enough - I'm done with this site... it's not fun anymore.

Adios.

(Thanks for the entertainment Trinats..)

Posted 15:41 15th August 2011

fozza says...

With regards to commentators I find the worse one by far (and I may cop some flak for this considering the likes of Stuart Barnes and Brian Moore seem to be harted) is Jonathon Davies. He drives me bonkers with his one-sided bias in commentary. Every decision given against Wales is questionable, he can be heard sighing when a team scores against his precious home country and will often shout like a supporter when Wales do well ("He's in!!!" Just before Roberts got caught in a tackle was one of my favourites). I have no problem with passionate people who support their country but there's a way to do it when you're employed as a commentator... Eddie Butler is an example... not beyond a bit of bias but his occaisional clashes with Brian Moore are legen... wait for it... dary.

The late, great, Bill McLaren would often get that "wee" bit more excited when it was Scotland approaching the line but he rarely questioned a refereeing decision and was always eloquent and amusing.

When I listened to Fox Sport's coverage of NZ vs Aus recently it was quite painful... Great defensive display by NZ the commentators: "the All blacks are suspiciously quick off the line"..." The all blacks were a mile off side there".

Wow this has turned into a mini-rant... to get this kind of response from me it must have been a good column... Thank you Mr Anderson!

Posted 12:07 15th August 2011