'I felt at least and I'm pretty sure he felt the same way - just incredibly close'
Brian Moore has been left devastated by the death of BBC broadcasting colleague Eddie Butler at the age of 65.
Butler, a former Wales captain, died on Thursday during a trek in Peru which had been organised to raise money for prostate cancer research.
Former England hooker Moore, who worked alongside him providing commentary on Six Nations matches, said he had felt “incredibly close” to Butler despite not spending a great deal of time together.
“I’m a lot more upset than I thought I was going to be, to be honest. (I’m) just devastated, especially for him to die at that age and on that sort of charity trip,” Moore told BBC Radio Five Live.
“It’s strange in lots of ways because we didn’t work together that often, we wouldn’t have done like a whole football season – (it was) Six Nations and a few other games per year.
“We didn’t spend that much time in each other’s company, didn’t visit the houses and yet we were – I felt at least and I’m pretty sure he felt the same way – just incredibly close.
“I can’t account for the depth of feeling given the limited amount of contact. I had immense respect for him.”
Butler starred in Pontypool’s back row in the 1970s and captained the side between 1982 and 1985.
His Test debut came in January 1980 when Wales defeated France 18-9 in the Five Nations. He retired from international rugby in 1985 aged 27.
After working as a teacher in Cheltenham for three years, Butler joined Radio Wales as a press and publicity officer in 1984.
He returned to BBC Wales in 1990 after launching a newspaper journalism career with the Sunday Correspondent, followed by stints with the Observer and the Guardian.
The accomplished broadcaster’s poetic poise and lilt lent itself in later years to colourful voice-over pieces, often delivered on Olympics duty.
“I remember when I worked with him, at first the verbal stick he used to get because he wasn’t Bill McLaren and he had to follow a genius in broadcasting and gradually over the years people did come to give him the full credit he deserved,” Moore said.
“Not least because of the montages he put together for the BBC, which were brilliant, on all sorts of sports. And, in the end, like a lot of these things, he came through and was recognised for the great, great talent he was.
“Commentary is a really subjective matter and you can’t please everyone no matter what you do.
“But I think Eddie went a long way, in the end, to pleasing most people because if people listened with any objectivity they had to understand he knew his subject thoroughly, he was a wordsmith, and he knew when not to speak.”
Former Wales playmaker Jonathan Davies also tweeted a tribute to Butler.
“Totally devastated with the news about Eddie,” he posted.
“Lost a charming man and a great friend. My thoughts are with Sue and all the children.”
Television presenter Gabby Logan, who fronts the BBC’s Six Nations coverage, added: “Eddie was a wonderful broadcaster, the kindest man and such great company.
“Many of us who worked with him are heartbroken.”
Tributes were also paid by Wales’ politicians, with First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeting: “Extremely sad to hear of Eddie’s passing.
“Eddie was an incredible player and a supremely talented broadcaster. Wales will miss him terribly.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments