'Boring, diabolical... dreary old nonsense' - Haskell's four minute rant on tired rugby coverage
Former England star James Haskell has heavily criticised rugby’s ‘diabolical’ and out of date coverage in a four-minute online rant.
The backrow turned MMA fighter hopes the sport can take an opportunity to re-evaluate how it presents its ‘product’ with the current suspension of the all professional rugby the world over due to the coronavirus.
WATCH: England and Sale flanker, Tom Curry took on Dragons’ Huw Taylor in the first round of the RugbyPass FIFA Pros tournament.
Haskell was speaking on The House of Rugby Podcast with Alex Payne and fellow ex-England player Mike Tindall.
“My concerns with rugby and the professional game are that people involved in rugby think rugby is everything and that everyone cares about rugby,” said Haskell. “They think everyone knows about it and they just don’t.”
“Outside in the real world you suddenly realise if you ever get out of that bubble that people don’t care and that it’s a third or fourth tier sport. It’s never going to compete with football.
“It’s not even in the same league, competition. If football is at the top of the ladder, then rugby can’t even see the bottom rung.
“So I think the whole game has to be centred around being accessible, and I think the TV commentary stuff, it’s just diabolical, boring.
“Nobody watches BT Sport. I don’t know how many viewers they get for that Rugby Tonight or whatever. No disrespect to them. It’s (Rugby Tonight) has got an amazing plethora of reporters and skillful people, legends of the game, but nobody watches BT Sport.
“Unless they do it because they are going to watch the Premiership. How many tune in to Rugby Tonight? I don’t know.
“I watched the coverage of the Six Nations. There are boys who are still involved who are great at what they did. It’s just there’s a younger generation with a short attention span – you need to be punchy and interesting.
“You have to be competitive in a competitive marketplace. You have to create a product that is fun to watch, easily understandable, [have] education around it, you need to do more at club rugby, get kids to play it at schools. You have to be ruthless.
“More teams doesn’t necessarily make for better rugby, a better product. Having played in all those leagues, I think stadiums and teams could do so much better match day experiences, to encourage people to come in to fill stadiums and create atmospheres, and create days out. That’s what people want.
“What thing about rugby over every other sport was the accessibility that the fans had to the players. You go to a Premiership football match and you’re lucky to get spat on by a Premiership player.
“You go to a rugby game and there are opportunities to meet players, [get] autographs signed, have that interaction. It’s important so that fans can feel part of the journey.
“You never want to lose any teams but I think this is an opportunity for the world at large to look at the way we travel, look at the way we treat people, look at our healthcare, our general hygiene, and team sport, look how we set teams up. Look how we do the business models and see if we can do something better this time round.
Hopefully not. https://t.co/0VksGrVlWk
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 29, 2020
“Instead of tinkering around with silly rules, it should try and deliver a product and it should try not to be so paranoid about the content they put out and the creation. Other sports are doing it better than rugby.
“When you tune in to an international game, you want someone engaging, someone upbeat, someone informed.
“You don’t want dreary old nonsense. Sorry to say but that’s what my experience of watching the last few years has been.
“They’re never going to sign me up as I’m too controversial, so that doesn’t bother me.
— Mike Tindall (@miketindall13) March 28, 2020
“For example, I thought Dylan Hartley on the BBC when he came on against France was fantastic. Current, informed, interesting, opinionated, countered, knew exactly what was going on in the mental mindset.
“Anyone who hasn’t been around a changing room for the last five years, you’re just watching like everyone else.”
Comments on RugbyPass
We had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getitng to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
7 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
7 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
55 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
55 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
7 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
55 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
55 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
55 Go to comments