Justin Marshall

[hawktrain]

Silence is a better commentator than those Fox Sports muppets. Marshall is excellent, he's insightful and enthusiastic, he always seems excited about the game as opposed to Kearns and Marto who sound like they're watching open heart surgery. Rod Kafer is the best of that bad bunch, but most of the time he just tells us what we already knew as far as analysis goes, and I believe he's often misleading in his explanation of certain laws. He's alright though.

I'd also like to give a shoutout to Sumo Stevenson, hands down the best play by play commentator going round. He knows all the players names + backgrounds really well, calls the game well and provides humour that is actually funny (take note Kearns/Martin). Not to mention all his excellent nicknames for players, stadiums and everything else - Forsyth Barr Stadium being 'the toast rack', and my personal favourite: Sona Taumololo being 'the blobfish'.

 

[ACT Crusader]

Sumo's hilarious without being over the top and trying to turn the game into comedy hour.

He occasionally visits the Silverfern forum too.

Marshall was one of my favourite players of all time, and like hi enthusiasm for the game and it definitely comes through the mic. But he makes a fair few mistakes and offen doesn't recoil. It's not an AB thing it's just an accuracy issue. He's okay but he bleats a bit.

 

[Dam0]

Well I disagree but I hear where you are coming from.

Long live different perspectives.

They say there is no accounting for taste.

 

[randalf8]

I have posted elswhere that I'd take Kafe and Marshall in a heartbeat.

Rugby doesn't need play-by-play commentators.

 

[ACR]

Throwing in my support for Marshall, Kafe and Sumo (especially Sumo). Marshall tries to be balanced and he throws out some decent knowledge and experience occasionally, sometime's he's just wrong but most commentators are (along with rugby fans in general). I like Kafe as well because he tries to provide balance as well, and he has the balls to just straight up disagree with Phil kearns whinging. Did you hear Kearns have a 30 second gripe about 3 'clear' South African infringements after one of their tries, he is worse than a drunken fan.

Sumo is quite frankly great value, he calls the game well and his delivery of humour or 'colour' is nice and seamless, borderline deadpan. I'd be stoked to have Sumo (or TJ) and Marshall calling a game, with Kafe on the sideline, or even a 3-man ANZ combo (2-man is better).

 

[Nipper]

I think you've misjudged us.

Justin Marshall is probably as close to universally liked as any commentator by this forum.

I'm pleasantly surprised! I thought for sure there would be more Kiwi-baiting (although that's not my reason for posting).

After watching so many clearly biased commentary out of NZ, he's been a breath of fresh air and more or less calls it like he sees it.

 

[Nipper]

Throwing in my support for Marshall, Kafe and Sumo (especially Sumo). Marshall tries to be balanced and he throws out some decent knowledge and experience occasionally, sometime's he's just wrong but most commentators are (along with rugby fans in general). I like Kafe as well because he tries to provide balance as well, and he has the balls to just straight up disagree with Phil kearns whinging. Did you hear Kearns have a 30 second gripe about 3 'clear' South African infringements after one of their tries, he is worse than a drunken fan.

Sumo is quite frankly great value, he calls the game well and his delivery of humour or 'colour' is nice and seamless, borderline deadpan. I'd be stoked to have Sumo (or TJ) and Marshall calling a game, with Kafe on the sideline, or even a 3-man ANZ combo (2-man is better).

I do like Kafe as well, but it seems to me that sometimes he just gets relegated to the sideline reporting, and they leave the full commentary to the "seasoned pros".

 

[ACR]

I do like Kafe as well, but it seems to me that sometimes he just gets relegated to the sideline reporting, and they leave the full commentary to the "seasoned pros".

Yep, sideline commentators are basically pointless and run through formalities. Kafe is down there far too often. We can only hope Foxsports decides to rustle some feathers to coincide with the ARU eventually doing it.

 

[Gagger]

There are a lot of Kiwis that dislike him, and I think some of it goes back to his playing days, some of it because he seems to try a bit too hard to criticise the All Blacks and praise the opposition, and yes, some of it because he dares to not be a cheerleader. He will improve as he gets more experience.

QED!

Agree he fucks up on the laws and just actually seeing what's happened quite often though. A little bit of motormouth I think

 

[Nipper]

We can only hope Foxsports decides to rustle some feathers to coincide with the ARU eventually doing it.

Like "Are you having a go at me, mate?" !! That was Kafe, right?

 

[saderista]

I like Meg as a commentator, I think that sometime he tries to hard to appear unbiased but generally gets it right.

Meg, Kafe and Sumo would make an excellent team.

 

[DPK]

Gordon Bray, Marshall and Kafe on the sideline would be pretty good.

I think sideline commentators aren't that bad, good to have some boots on the ground. The game looks different from down there.

 

[randalf8]

Gordon Bray, Marshall and Kafe on the sideline would be pretty good.

I think sideline commentators aren't that bad, good to have some boots on the ground. The game looks different from down there.

Bray hasn't known the rules since about 1997.

 

[DPK]

In that case he should be perfectly qualified to work in the booth with Marto and Kearns?

 

[Ruggo]

Marshall is good value.

 

[dave]

I quite like Marshall and in general favour the NZ commentators who, although are a bit biased at times, show good knowledge of the game. Marshall does drone on a bit and sometimes tries too hard to be "balanced", but this is actually a good thing. I don't mind commentators who are openly behind their team but what is intolerable is the utter out and out biases, especially from the Fox sports guys - Kafe excluded. Incidentally Joel Stanzky on the saffer side isn't bad as an analyst either.
As to commentators not knowing the laws, who does? Even the ref gets confused. I've heard every commentary team NZ, AUS and SA have an on air conference about different interpretations or incidents missed. If this discussion is knowledgeable it's fine, if it's a rambling justification of why a team is hard done by (Kearns is the No. 1 perpetrator) it becomes too much to bear.

I remember during the RWC 2003 (and maybe since then) the digital transmission used to contain the ref's mike as an audio option. Why don't they offer this any more?

 

[Dam0]

In all fairness to Marshall, you haven't really made it as a success unless you have a facebook hate page:

He's made it.