.. But I still don't understand how Martin survives.
./...snip.../. The Kearns and Horans and Martos of the world should be relegated to before, after and halftime chat in the studios. Then they only need to come up with three minutes of coherent comment and repartee each.
./...snip.../. .
They would struggle with that. Kearns, Horan, Martin, Growden, and Burke should all be relegated to a podcast.
The American commentating for the CRCs and the World Cup were and still are (same announcers for the CRC tournament for the past few years: http://www.usasevenscrc.com/) fucking horrendous. Besides the fact that they are quite literally hand-holding the spectators through each and every single fucking game they are just flat out wrong a lot of the time. Watching our CRC matches the week after the tournament on the tape-delay broadcast had me cringing a lot. I may have a personal bias though, the head commentator accused me of hands in the ruck on what was a clearly legitimate pilfer (didn't know until the tape delay or the commentating box would have needed a heavier door). Bastard. Okay maybe my left knee was on the ground. Whatever.
Martin says Deans holds a grudge against Cooper
Rikki-Jayne Swannell, Newstalk ZB April 12, 2013, 10:13 amFormer Wallaby Greg Martin has launched an incredible assault on coach Robbie Deans, claiming he is sabotaging Australian rugby.
Martin says Deans clearly holds a grudge against Reds first-five Quade Cooper after he was left out of the 30-man preliminary squad for the Lions Test series.
Speaking on his Triple M radio show, Martin says the conspiracy theory that Deans was put in place to ruin Australian rugby is almost getting to the point where it's true.
"I'm going to call it that Robbie Deans wants to sabotage Australian rugby, and this has been a conspiracy on the internet since the world cup, that he was put in here as a Trojan horse to ruin Australian rugby.
"It's almost getting to that stage if he doesn't pick Quade Cooper I say that's true."
Martin says Cooper must play.
"He is the only way we can beat the British Lions.
"Everyone else is fairly pedestrian or isn't used to Will Genia.
"It appears that Robbie Deans, who's a Kiwi, is not going to pick Quade Cooper because of what he said to him last year."
Last year, Quade Cooper described the Wallabies environment as toxic.
She's bloody knowledgeableThere is a female "colour" commentator in some of the NZ games. I think she's an ex Black Cap captain or something like that. She is very knowledgeable and is significantly better than the Alternate Three Amigos of Australian Rugby Commentary, (Marto, Canno, Kearnso) in the same way that Gordon Ramsey is a significantly better cook than Peter Spotty-Teenager at your local McDonalds Family Restaurant.
PS love the Kearns = Eyeore reference.
I watched the Vegas Sevens on NBC, and the commentary wasn't tooooooo bad (I may have been blinded by the novelty of hearing Americans use Rugby terminology) but some of the infographics they had on screen to explain the game were just flat out wrong or misleading. I'm trying to remember how they defined a scrum, but it was basically just "a way to restart the game". Thanks for that amazing insight NBC.
However it was interesting watching a game down at Stanford, and hearing people there talk - they all obviously watch/play a lot of rugby and had a lot of good comments on the tactics, etc, so there are definitely Americans out there who get the game. Hopefully they can grow it and expand the talent pool of people who actually understand it and are articulate and can commentate on future games - I wonder how the Olympic commentary is going to go
The Australian Rugby Union late last year granted Network Ten the free-to-air broadcast rights for the next three years of Wallabies test matches after the Nine Network had "programming conflicts" with its other sports broadcasts.
Bray, who became the "Voice of Rugby" on the ABC, Ten and then Seven, has been a broadcaster for more than 40 years and was most recently employed by Fox Sports.
He will join another newly-signed commentator, former Wallaby Matt Burke, on Ten’s coverage, which will include all Qantas Wallabies matches live, Bledisloe Cup matches and Rugby Championship games from 2013 to 2015.