United Rugby Championship announced, beginning September 2021

Podge_irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

You want a current Ireland coach to comment on Irish players?

Indeed, it would be one thing to be covering internationals/non-Irish provincial games but absolute best case scenario is it being just horrendously boring as he will be so careful what he's saying.

sprucemoose

thomond2006 wrote: »

You want a current Ireland coach to comment on Irish players?

yes..........

im not saying its going to happen, but id see no problem with it. now im also sure if it were to happen then anything said would most likely be sanitised to not cause problems

Podge_irl wrote: »

best case scenario is it being just horrendously boring as he will be so careful what he's saying.

probably, but id see no problem in theory



brad fittler is coach of nsw state of origin and is one of the main pundits for channel 9 nrl coverage, its actually quite interesting to hear him speaking about players he has worked with or may work with in the future

sydthebeat

listening to "under the sticks" at the moment and some interesting pick ups

1. there will be a physical trophy for the winners of each individual pool (so muster might actually get to lift a trophy sometime)

2. they are looking at using players to share recordings through their social media to grow the game, a la NFL

bilston

sydthebeat wrote: »

listening to "under the sticks" at the moment and some interesting pick ups

1. there will be a physical trophy for the winners of each individual pool (so muster might actually get to lift a trophy sometime)

Was thinking earlier that there should be trophies for each individual league so I think that's a good idea. I think this could be particularly beneficial for the Welsh regions, but it will additonal bite to the Inter Pros as well.

Red Silurian

Must love hardship wrote: »

With Rte getting back involved in rugby and showing a few 6 nations games who are we likely to have as analysts???

From the Eir coverage.
Tommy bowe is on tv3 breakfast show so he is out.
D'Arcy and stringer might be available.
Donocha o'callaghan is working for rte radio now so will surely make an appearance..
Would like to see more of Murray kinsella and Bernard Jackson.

Less of Daire o'brian.
With rte they will also have to fill a gender quota. Who's the beat Female analyst?

Any players retiring this year that could pop up?

As long as they stop the Eir strategy of constantly talking over the ref I don't care who they have as analysts or commentators

Going back a few years TG4 used to just say the names of the players in posession, penalty (pinos) and Try (Úd) which was great!

Lost Ormond

bilston wrote: »

Was thinking earlier that there should be trophies for each individual league so I think that's a good idea. I think this could be particularly beneficial for the Welsh regions, but it will additonal bite to the Inter Pros as well.

Oh definitely. Irish Cup could call it 1946 cup like what edinburgh glasgow do for their games with it called 1872 cup.

Blut2

sydthebeat wrote: »

2. they are looking at using players to share recordings through their social media to grow the game, a la NFL

As in they plan on mic'ing up the players? That would be very cool. The NFL produces some gems like this each season from that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SEPufzG7s

It really gives you a bit more insight to what its like being out there on the field from their point of view.

sydthebeat

Blut2 wrote: »

As in they plan on mic'ing up the players? That would be very cool. The NFL produces some gems like this each season from that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SEPufzG7s

It really gives you a bit more insight to what its like being out there on the field from their point of view.

no.

what they meant was that essentially they will make the clip of say, Zebo, scoring a try available to him (rights wise) so that he can share on his SM.. obviously with URC logo etc

The mic'ed up is a great idea. Rob Kearney was micced up for one of his first Super Rugby games and although i dont think we could get it here through rugby pass, i think it was an option on stan sports
https://www.facebook.com/stansportau/videos/230309678792924

Cookiemunster

sydthebeat wrote: »

listening to "under the sticks" at the moment and some interesting pick ups

1. there will be a physical trophy for the winners of each individual pool (so muster might actually get to lift a trophy sometime)

2. they are looking at using players to share recordings through their social media to grow the game, a la NFL

I've seen guys like Three Red Kings on Twitter previously praising the Pro14 for allowing him to share clips and not slap take down notices on him like other leagues. If they've one thing going for them it's that they do seem to be way more social media savvy than other leagues and sporting organisations.

Cookiemunster

Blut2 wrote: »

As in they plan on mic'ing up the players? That would be very cool. The NFL produces some gems like this each season from that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SEPufzG7s

It really gives you a bit more insight to what its like being out there on the field from their point of view.

Sky used to mike up players. I can remember a few Munster players being miked up in games.

Exclamation Marc

Must love hardship wrote: »

The United Rugby Championship will be shown on RTÉ and TG4 from next season.

52 of the 60 Irish fixtures every season for the next four years.

The URC and RTÉ will offer a domestic and international streaming option called URC TV, subject to contracts.

This is really excellent news. And a four year agreement is ideal.

I remember people claiming that eir pulling out of domestic rugby rights was a bad thing. Thank god they're gone or this likely would not have happened.

Blut2

sydthebeat wrote: »

no.

what they meant was that essentially they will make the clip of say, Zebo, scoring a try available to him (rights wise) so that he can share on his SM.. obviously with URC logo etc

The mic'ed up is a great idea. Rob Kearney was micced up for one of his first Super Rugby games and although i dont think we could get it here through rugby pass, i think it was an option on stan sports
https://www.facebook.com/stansportau/videos/230309678792924

Ah, thanks. I mean theres nothing wrong with that idea to be fair. It couldn't hurt.

But its not half as interesting/unusual as highlights from mic'ed up players though I think. Hopefully someone from the URC is reading this thread and gets inspired..

Richie_Rich89

Blut2 wrote: »

Ah, thanks. I mean theres nothing wrong with that idea to be fair. It couldn't hurt.

But its not half as interesting/unusual as highlights from mic'ed up players though I think. Hopefully someone from the URC is reading this thread and gets inspired..

Is it? It'd just be all f-words and 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!" and 'give it, give it!' and grunts when they take it into contact. Not all that interesting really.

Blut2

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Is it? It'd just be all f-words and 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!" and 'give it, give it!' and grunts when they take it into contact. Not all that interesting really.

Thats not how it is in the NFL at all. There are lots of examples of it on Youtube, but even that short link I posted shows the defense vocally recognising the offense formation, the defensive captain calling an alignment to respond to it, then the QB recognising that movement and making an instant adjustment to compensate.

None of which would be anywhere near as obvious from the TV broadcast. It really gives a lot of insight. Pro-rugby has plenty of vocal calls and adjustments made during play too, its not just 30 idiots running at each other.

Cookiemunster

Blut2 wrote: »

Thats not how it is in the NFL at all. There are lots of examples of it on Youtube, but even that short link I posted shows the defense vocally recognising the offense formation, the defensive captain calling an alignment to respond to it, then the QB recognising that movement and making an instant adjustment to compensate.

None of which would be anywhere near as obvious from the TV broadcast. It really gives a lot of insight. Pro-rugby has plenty of vocal calls and adjustments made during play too, its not just 30 idiots running at each other.

As I said already, Sky did it for a while and it was basically what Richie said. They never had anything of note to broadcast.

awec

They mic'ed Darren Cave up for a game once and it was basically just like listening to your mates during a 5 a side game.

"Well done"
"Let's go!"
"Great tackle"
"Nice try!"

etc

Teferi

It's a pity Guinness haven't renewed. I wonder what other sponsor they would get - I prefer a long term sponsor, changing it every couple of years hurts the overall brand of the competition I feel.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

They mic'ed Darren Cave up for a game once and it was basically just like listening to your mates during a 5 a side game.

"Well done"
"Let's go!"
"Great tackle"
"Nice try!"

etc

I imagine teams don't agree to have the on-field leaders miced up so that specific calls aren't being broadcast.

Cookiemunster

Teferi wrote: »

It's a pity Guinness haven't renewed. I wonder what other sponsor they would get - I prefer a long term sponsor, changing it every couple of years hurts the overall brand of the competition I feel.

Literally every competition other than the Heineken Cup has changed sponsorship every 5 or 6 years. And even they tried to go the no named sponsor route for a few years. The Premiership in England has been sponsored by Gallagher, Aviva, Guinness and Zurich in the last 20 years.

Its the constant changing of the name of the competition that's the issue. Its been the Celtic League, Pro12/14 and now URC. In that time the Premiership has simply been the 'sponsors name' Premiership.

It's not changing the sponsorship that's the issue, it's the constant changing of the product.

briandebum

If they really want to garner interest in the league, then the way to go would be to sell their souls to Netflix for an all-access show a-la Drive To Survive.

Micced up clips I've seen in rugby tend to be fairly drab.

theVersatile

briandebum wrote: »

If they really want to garner interest in the league, then the way to go would be to sell their souls to Netflix for an all-access show a-la Drive To Survive.

Micced up clips I've seen in rugby tend to be fairly drab.

All or Nothing: Munster/Leinster is potentially very interesting

roundymac

I take it I am safe in not renewing my EIR Sports sub?

sprucemoose

roundymac wrote: »

I take it I am safe in not renewing my EIR Sports sub?

seeing as they said theyre closing down by the end of the year i wouldnt bother

Teferi

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Literally every competition other than the Heineken Cup has changed sponsorship every 5 or 6 years. And even they tried to go the no named sponsor route for a few years. The Premiership in England has been sponsored by Gallagher, Aviva, Guinness and Zurich in the last 20 years.

Its the constant changing of the name of the competition that's the issue. Its been the Celtic League, Pro12/14 and now URC. In that time the Premiership has simply been the 'sponsors name' Premiership.

It's not changing the sponsorship that's the issue, it's the constant changing of the product.

I consider 6 years to be long term, so good to know we're on the same page.

Serbian

I'm so glad eir Sports are gone, literally nobody was on board with that channel, not even advertisers. Their ad breaks were just 5 minutes of ads for eir. Wouldn't be too optimistic on RTE's coverage of the games based on past performance, but at least the games will be very accessible to people in Ireland, that's the main thing. Also don't have to worry about sorting dodgy streams for my dad anymore, this change makes my life less hassle

As for putting mics on players — they don't broadcast that stuff live, they edit it and put together a few clips later, so there's no reason they couldn't mic the leaders or lineout callers etc, they just wouldn't include those parts in the clip package (would likely be a bit cryptic and not be interesting to the vast majority of people anyway).

Cookiemunster

Teferi wrote: »

I consider 6 years to be long term, so good to know we're on the same page.

We're not on the same page. The issue with the brand is the constant changing of the title and format, not the sponsorship.

Guinness have been the Pro12/14 sponsors for 7 years BTW, so hardly changing every couple of years.

Exclamation Marc

Serbian wrote: »

I'm so glad eir Sports are gone, literally nobody was on board with that channel, not even advertisers. Their ad breaks were just 5 minutes of ads for eir. Wouldn't be too optimistic on RTE's coverage of the games based on past performance, but at least the games will be very accessible to people in Ireland, that's the main thing. Also don't have to worry about sorting dodgy streams for my dad anymore, this change makes my life less hassle

Same with my parents - it'll be a delight having it free to air as they're always asking me how to find it and whilst I can sometimes find a stream, they're not tech minded so its a fragile set-up!

I've long complained about it but when eir made themselves unavailable to Virgin Media customers twice, the writing was on the wall. Even on Sky it was unwieldy and locked to one box. The fact that they also banged on about showing every live game and then locked some games to their player in order to screen some 'classic' GAA or football match from the 1990s was just bewildering. Thank God they're no longer involved in rugby.

Accessibility is everything and having it on RTE, TG4 and on their respective players is a massive boost to the league.

ineedeuro

Serbian wrote: »

I'm so glad eir Sports are gone, literally nobody was on board with that channel, not even advertisers. Their ad breaks were just 5 minutes of ads for eir. Wouldn't be too optimistic on RTE's coverage of the games based on past performance, but at least the games will be very accessible to people in Ireland, that's the main thing. Also don't have to worry about sorting dodgy streams for my dad anymore, this change makes my life less hassle

As for putting mics on players — they don't broadcast that stuff live, they edit it and put together a few clips later, so there's no reason they couldn't mic the leaders or lineout callers etc, they just wouldn't include those parts in the clip package (would likely be a bit cryptic and not be interesting to the vast majority of people anyway).

The Eir team was very good. A lot better than any of the other channels have done with the ProXX before.

The problem was not Eir sports but Eir as a company. They are awful to deal with and only people who have to will use their BB. That meant the user base was restricted not because the product was poor but because of the company reputation.

It would be good if they could take that team and put onto RTE, but I would expect RTE will try and push a load of their inhouse presenters who in the majority are awful

Former Former Former

The only downside of the new TV deal is that, presumably, the rights money going to the unions is absolute peanuts.

thomond2006

Former Former Former wrote: »

The only downside of the new TV deal is that, presumably, the rights money going to the unions is absolute peanuts.

The SA money pot will offset that you'd think.