Rugby Newspaper Coverage

Danakin

I'm just wondering what members think about the quality of newspaper coverage of rugby is like in Ireland and which are your prefered papers and analysts to read the coverage from?

Personal favourite would be the Irish Times and Gerry Thornley-he's pretty close to the mark in terms of analysis and doesn't seem to engage in the win-and-its-the-world-cup/lose-and-we're-Italy hyperbole that a lot of the others do. Liam Toland also writes a good in-depth column in the paper as well even if they do spoil it a bit with Matt Williams on big Six Nations/Autumn Series weekends.

The Indo is decent too but seems to tend towards repeating lines from press conferences rather than proper analysis.

The Guardian has my favourite sports section especially online but I have to say their rugby coverage is the worst of all the sports they cover unfortunately.

anonymous_joe

Danakin wrote: »

I'm just wondering what members think about the quality of newspaper coverage of rugby is like in Ireland and which are your prefered papers and analysts to read the coverage from?

Personal favourite would be the Irish Times and Gerry Thornley-he's pretty close to the mark in terms of analysis and doesn't seem to engage in the win-and-its-the-world-cup/lose-and-we're-Italy hyperbole that a lot of the others do. Liam Toland also writes a good in-depth column in the paper as well even if they do spoil it a bit with Matt Williams on big Six Nations/Autumn Series weekends.

The Indo is decent too but seems to tend towards repeating lines from press conferences rather than proper analysis.

The Guardian has my favourite sports section especially online but I have to say their rugby coverage is the worst of all the sports they cover unfortunately.

Rugby's a bit conservative/posh for the Guardian really. Which is a shame. They've got great football coverage.

Danakin

Danakin wrote: »

I'm just wondering what members think about the quality of newspaper coverage of rugby is like in Ireland and which are your prefered papers and analysts to read the coverage from?

Personal favourite would be the Irish Times and Gerry Thornley-he's pretty close to the mark in terms of analysis and doesn't seem to engage in the win-and-its-the-world-cup/lose-and-we're-Italy hyperbole that a lot of the others do. Liam Toland also writes a good in-depth column in the paper as well even if they do spoil it a bit with Matt Williams on big Six Nations/Autumn Series weekends.

The Indo is decent too but seems to tend towards repeating lines from press conferences rather than proper analysis.

The Guardian has my favourite sports section especially online but I have to say their rugby coverage is the worst of all the sports they cover unfortunately.

Matt Williams is probably the best pundit in Ireland imo.
Thornley is pissing me off these days,all he does is lick Kidneys ass and is too afraid to criticise any players at all.

conno16

thornleys first sport is tennis
enough said
the bloke is a loser
any of the internationals i'm acquainted with just seem to sneer poor auld geri

thomond2006

Brian Moore on the Telegraph is excellent.

Stephen Jones of the Times on the other hand...:pac:

Podge_irl

I really like the Telegraph's coverage, but it's obviously English-centric so there's not much Irish based stuff. Moore is excellent and Greenwood isn't too shabby either.

Danakin

Yeah i have been thinking recently that Thornley rarely does criticise any particular players and he doesn't really come down on either side in debates like the O'Gara/Sexton one. His style of writing is probably the main thing that appeals to me these days and I kind of associate going to matches with reading his articles on the way up on the train.

I wouldn't criticise him for being a tennis reporter though. To be honest I think we don't give meium-sized sports like Tennis enough coverage in Ireland compared to the rest of the world even Britain.

@AnonymousJoe-You're probably right about the Guardian and its anti-the toffs game attitude. Their football coverage is definitely the best though. Feature articles too that we don't get any of in our papers.

PhatPiggins

I do enjoy Bob Casey's articles. They give a good insight into the players mentality. He's topic range is limited but I imagine he's asked to keep it that way.

Liam Toland is a good a decent writer and probably the best of the player turned writer types.

To be honest I'd prefer Thornleys mild criticisms to the tabloid sensationalism of Francis.

Peter O Reillys articles in the Sunday Times are good but I usually miss them as I tend to shred the sports section if I accidently read a couple of lines of Stephen Jones racist bile.

anonymous_joe

Danakin wrote: »

Yeah i have been thinking recently that Thornley rarely does criticise any particular players and he doesn't really come down on either side in debates like the O'Gara/Sexton one. His style of writing is probably the main thing that appeals to me these days and I kind of associate going to matches with reading his articles on the way up on the train.

I wouldn't criticise him for being a tennis reporter though. To be honest I think we don't give meium-sized sports like Tennis enough coverage in Ireland compared to the rest of the world even Britain.

@AnonymousJoe-You're probably right about the Guardian and its anti-the toffs game attitude. Their football coverage is definitely the best though. Feature articles too that we don't get any of in our papers.

They've a great approach to football journalism, their website's fantastic too, but yeah, their lack of rugby just sucks.

Co45

I like Thornley's analysis but sometimes I feel he really holds back so as not to offend any of the players or management which is frustrating.

Morf

I like the Irish Times.

I think i would prefer them not to but the boot in and continue to have good access to players and the coaching staff.

Co45

Morf wrote: »

I like the Irish Times.

I think i would prefer them not to but the boot in and continue to have good access to players and the coaching staff.

If you can't take the criticism then don't play professional rugby. Players shouldn't even be reading the articles, at least thats the way it used to be, times have obviously changed now that we've got players like O'Gara actually responding to articles!
I know teams have used particularly venomous articles to inspire them but if your a player I just feel you should be concentrating on your own game and your coaches opinion of your game, not some journalists opinion of your game

Aidric

The Irish Times is head and shoulders above the rest. The Irish Examiner isn't bad either and actually carry reports of Munster junior league and cup games on Monday. Both these papers have a good rounded coverage of the game, nice mix of interviews and analysis.
Apart from the odd decent piece from Tony Ward the Independent is best avoided. Hugh Farrely is down there with Roy Curtis in the battle to the bottom.

The_Kew_Tour

Aidric wrote: »

The Irish Times is head and shoulders above the rest. The Irish Examiner isn't bad either and actually carry reports of Munster junior league and cup games on Monday. Both these papers have a good rounded coverage of the game, nice mix of interviews and analysis.
Apart from the odd decent piece from Tony Ward the Independent is best avoided. Hugh Farrely is down there with Roy Curtis in the battle to the bottom.

Totally agree with you about Farrely i think he worst I have seen.

I like Thornley. I used to love Tony Ward but gone down peck or two in few years but still pretty good.

Brian Moore is also honest.

d'Oracle

I like Neil Francis in the Tribune.

Cos everyone is on drugs, nobody is good enough and cursing is perfectly acceptable in print media.

PhatPiggins

d'Oracle wrote: »

I like Neil Francis in the Tribune.

Cos everyone is on drugs, nobody is good enough and cursing is perfectly acceptable in print media.

And every Ulster selection is a political one especially Paddy Johns who was nowhere near good enough to replace the verbose one.

uggybear

Can't decide which English newspaper has the best coverage, The Telegraph seems to have the best coverage by far but don't know what the English Indo is like tbh as it still has the Women's rugby World Cup semi-final match report of Ireland vs England still up on it's website almost a week after the match took place, granted, the club rugby season hasn't started yet but in the country where rugby football was born you'd think the newspaper coverage would be much more in depth than this which is a shame.

SaveOurLyric

Ha! Remember newspapers ? Ahhh, the memories.

You get more news, info, and views on a game from a boards thread.

LeinsterDub

SaveOurLyric wrote: »

Ha! Remember newspapers ? Ahhh, the memories.

You get more news, info, and views on a game from a boards thread.

And blogs and pods

Zzippy

Zombie thread alert