ITV on Sunday night announced their line-up of pundits, presenters and reporters for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. It includes a smorgasbord of ex-professionals from across the globe, including several that featured in England’s winning team in 2003. Here is the full list:
Lead presenter: John Inverdale
Pundits: Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Robinson, Sir Clive Woodward, Brian O’Driscoll, Gareth Thomas, Sir Ian McGeechan, Francois Pienaar, Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Lynagh, George Gregan, Maggie Alphonsi, David Flatman
Presenters: Mark Durden-Smith, Craig Doyle
Commentators: Nick Mullins, Miles Harrison, Jon Champion, Martin Gillingham, Simon Ward
Co-commentators: Geordan Murphy, Scott Hastings, Shane Williams, Ben Kay
Reporters: Jill Douglas, Fran Donovan, Gabriel Clarke, Martin Bayfield
A stellar list of names, you will no doubt agree, but ITV do have some work to do to restore their reputation after a less-than-positive response to their coverage of the 2011 event. Comments about their commentary team from readers of this site included:
“I cannot agree more with some of the awful commentary on ITV, they are an Andy Nicol away from a complete disaster!”
“If ITV wins the rights for 2015 I will most likely turn the sound off and listen to the radio.”
“Absolutely disgusted about the amount of advertising during the opening ceremony, we saw only 12 mins of the opening ceremony with more than 20mins of ads during a 45 min period – what was ITV thinking of!!”
What do you think of the list of pundits, presenters and commentators for the upcoming World Cup? Will you be muting the coverage and listening to the radio, as some suggested doing last time?
23 replies on “ITV announces Rugby World Cup 2015 line-up”
In 2011 the ‘Alternative Rugby Commentary’ was broadcast for the big games over the internet. Turn the sound off and listen to that – not terribly politically correct and hardly impartial if the All Blacks are playing, but much better than what was coming out of ITV.
BBC & Sky for me ( if they are covering it !) I suppose Inverdale will be wearing his replica England shirt for the whole tournament …
eh, they’re not…..
ITV own the rights to the RWC Coverage, therefore nobody else is allowed to cover it on live on TV without the permission of ITV
Inverdale? Really? I’m English and even I think he’s a bit of troll, admittedly this is more down to his looks rather than anything else.
The SH contingent, Geech, Thomas and Delaglio should be good. Not sure about Wilkinson, Robinson, O’Driscoll or Alphonsi as I have not seen much of them as pundits.
Pity about Inverdale and Woodward. Both can come across as smug and self satisfied at the best of times.
One major problem last year was how stilted the whole set up was. Hopefully they will work that bit out so it flows a bit more smoothly, especially when they get into analysis on their studio screens.
In fairness to SCW, I think he’s earned the right to look smug. Inverdale on the other hand is incredibly off-putting. At least its on ITV so there shouldn’t be the Pro Wales agenda that the BBC has. Mind you, during the RWC 11, Steve Ryder wouldn’t shut up about “Scotland’s proud history of always making the Quarter Finals”.
I like some of the BT sport representation here (Loz, Kay, Mullins, Doyle, Flats and Bayfs)
I don’t like some of the 6N representation here (SCW, Inverdale)
Anyone as long as it’s not Stuart Barnes, Dewi Morris, John Taylor or Steve Smith!
I’d rather have Will Greenwood than Woodward. But other than that I can live with it. Glad they decided to raid BT rather than the BBC…for the most part anyway!
I’d say it’s a good thing to have Woodward. It’s not that I’m a fan but it’s good to have a different perspective. A pundit is there to provide insight and he has the experience (unique amongst them) of having been the head coach of a world cup winning team.
Jon Champion this is The Rugby World Cup not The Football World Cup…..
No Jiffy ?? I ain’t watching it then ….
Great more commentary biased in favour of England with a few token Welsh, Scottish & Irish ones thrown in!! ITV are supposed to be covering the tournament for the United Kingdom and not just England, or will ITV Wales, STV & UTV be providing their own coverage? No wonder the celtic nations support anyteam playing England
BBC is just as bad with the bias though. Always an English pundit even if England aren’t playing followed by whoever that is (usually Guscott) turning the whole talk back to how it will effect England
So what was Jiffy doing at the Scotland Ireland game at the weekend? The BBC has the worst pro Welsh bias of any rugby broadcaster. The build up to last year’s England Wales 6N fixture was “Look what happened last time Wales played England”, referencing the 2013 result. This year it was “Look what happened the last time Wales played England, at the Millennium Stadium”. Suddenly, the fact that England won against Wales in 2014 became completely irrelevant.
So take that whiny chip off your shoulder. Wales get more coverage than they deserve.
Don’t forget England are the host nation. Bound to be a bit of an English bias in the representation
Seriously, does it really matter what the nationalities of the pundits are?
They should just get the BT sport team in, most of the time they are brilliant!!!
As long as no Andy Nicol,Brian Moore or janathon Davies I will have sound turned up!
I don’t like Mark D-Smith as a presenter, I hated him when he was on ESPN. There was a reason why bt dropped him for their coverage
Yes yet again the media think the only British Isles team that is taking part is England.
Inverdale and Woodenhead on the ITV as well now. Dalialio -‘Line of the white stuff please for the ex-England captain’ .F.F.S.!
Don’t recall ITV filling their studios with Welsh pundits at the expense of all others in 1999 on the basis that Wales are hosts so there?
How have ITV resisted dragging Clare ‘I know the Queen you know’ Badding on as well?
Thankfully I can watch it on S4C in a language than pre-dates this imported Norman tongue by several hundred years.
It’s very simple Enoch. We’re better than you. Deep down you know that.