Against The Head

Homesick Alien

I really enjoy RTE's rugby magazine show but I think they could improve the format significantly.

1. In the "Pro 12 Round Up" segment, how about showing highlights of all the games, not just the ones that Irish teams are involved in?
2. Same with the Champions Cup. There are losts of interesting matches out there that could be picked over by the panel, even when Irish teams are not involved.
3. How about doing some proper analysis of the actual Pro12 matches rather than after the highlights talking generally about the performance/plight of a team? Often they just show the highlights but don't talk about the game at all.
4. Having the same "Where does Irish/Provincial/Club rugby go from here?" discussion every week is getting boring.

I appreciate that they have limited time but I do think they could use it better or extend the show. Basically I think Against The Head along with the rest of us need to get behind the pro12 and give it some proper coverage. I understand that in the international window it will take somewhat of a backseat, but I think more people would get behind it if there was more coverage in general.

Anything else they could do better?

thomond2006

The Pro12 badly needs a round up show in general. It would be easy to put up a 10 minute video on youtube and put Sky ads at the beginning and end to stop them kicking up a fuss.

connemara man

Not have Daire O Brien presenting it. I think Joanne Cantwell is much better.

The league is crying out for a proper MOTD style show

FACECUTTR

connemara man wrote: »

Not have Daire O Brien presenting it. I think Joanne Cantwell is much better.

The league is crying out for a proper MOTD style show

He is very poor and very biased.

thomond2006

FACECUTTR wrote: »

He is very poor and very biased.

Hey now, go easy on him...

b.gud

thomond2006 wrote: »

Hey now, go easy on him...

realdanbreen

Does anyone else feel that rugby has become a boring and tedious game at this stage? You rarely see a spontaneous move or long run nowadays It's all about sticking to the coaches instruction and making yards. A bit like american football without the glitz and excitement really.

Zzippy

thomond2006 wrote: »

Hey now, go easy on him...

Piss off, Daire!

FrannoFan

Dreadful host! always brings a munster agenda to all Ireland issues.

"go easy" is the catch phrase equivalent of puking in your mouth and trying to swallow it again.

irishbucsfan

Haha these threads always turn into a Daire O'Brien thread. I'll move it along: Does anyone know if he likes gambling at all?

icdg

Unfortunately suffers from having no rights to any EPCR footage, so any discussion of games has to be without the aid of any visuals or highlights.

I am not sure what their rights to the Pro 12 are - they seem to be able to show brief highlights but little else.

Sky do have a Pro 12 roundup on Sky On Demand, but it's nothing along the lines of European Rugby Special, just short highlights of each game.

FACECUTTR

realdanbreen wrote: »

Does anyone else feel that rugby has become a boring and tedious game at this stage? You rarely see a spontaneous move or long run nowadays It's all about sticking to the coaches instruction and making yards. A bit like american football without the glitz and excitement really.

You are right if you are talking about NH rugby with the exception of Glasgow, Connacht and 1 or 2 french teams. I hate the forward orientated penalty kicking tripe. I know it has won Heineken cups and world cups but it is horrible to watch.

FACECUTTR

FrannoFan wrote: »

Dreadful host! always brings a munster agenda to all Ireland issues.

"go easy" is the catch phrase equivalent of puking in your mouth and trying to swallow it again.

I think he is stuck in 2006 instead of 2016. A lot has changed since.....

Yeah_Right

realdanbreen wrote: »

Does anyone else feel that rugby has become a boring and tedious game at this stage? You rarely see a spontaneous move or long run nowadays It's all about sticking to the coaches instruction and making yards. A bit like american football without the glitz and excitement really.

You obviously need to watch some rugby from south of the equator. Lots more running and spontaneity.

OldRio

realdanbreen wrote: »

Does anyone else feel that rugby has become a boring and tedious game at this stage? You rarely see a spontaneous move or long run nowadays It's all about sticking to the coaches instruction and making yards. A bit like american football without the glitz and excitement really.

I take it you have not watched Connacht this season.

jacothelad

OldRio wrote: »

I take it you have not watched Connacht this season.

..or Glasgow...or Ulster...or even Cardiff Blues recently. There have also been lots of great games in English rugby. Wasps have been very good for example...and Exeter.

Homesick Alien

connemara man wrote: »

Not have Daire O Brien presenting it. I think Joanne Cantwell is much better.

The league is crying out for a proper MOTD style show

Joanna is much better, but Daire has grown on me I have to say.

But yeah an MOTD unbiased type show where people have actually watched the games as opposed to just looked at the scores would be great

Digifriendly

icdg wrote: »

Unfortunately suffers from having no rights to any EPCR footage, so any discussion of games has to be without the aid of any visuals or highlights.

I am not sure what their rights to the Pro 12 are - they seem to be able to show brief highlights but little else.

Sky do have a Pro 12 roundup on Sky On Demand, but it's nothing along the lines of European Rugby Special, just short highlights of each game.

Pro 12 Youtube channel has tries from all the games - there is usually a Sky promo at end of each game so they may be getting their highlights package from Sky. I wish 'Against the Head' would show all the tries not just some.

Homesick Alien

Digifriendly wrote: »

Pro 12 Youtube channel has tries from all the games - there is usually a Sky promo at end of each game so they may be getting their highlights package from Sky. I wish 'Against the Head' would show all the tries not just some.

The YouTube channel is woeful. If the only scores in a game are the penalties they will show the team's jogging out all the penalties being kicked and that's it. No line breaks, near misses, disallowed tries etc.

NiallBoo

ITV do a highlights show for the Aviva Premiership *spit*. Lots of highlights with some quick but good analysis in between (done from one of the grounds, which I think is a nice touch)

I'd love to see something like that for the Pro12 on rte/tv3. Surely highlights rights aren't too expensive?

It airs a few nights a week (late) and fills the slot much better than a crappy sitcom repeat.

Ps. It's probably in the satellite channel's interest to have someone do highlights as it'll drive interest for live viewing.

former total

Homesick Alien wrote: »

The YouTube channel is woeful. If the only scores in a game are the penalties they will show the team's jogging out all the penalties being kicked and that's it. No line breaks, near misses, disallowed tries etc.

TV channels have paid for the highlights rights. You can't cut their throats by giving it all away in YouTube.

NiallBoo

former total wrote: »

TV channels have paid for the highlights rights.

You're right re YouTube but the tv channels really aren't making much use of the highlights.

former total

NiallBoo wrote: »

You're right re YouTube but the tv channels really aren't making much use of the highlights.

I don't really know what the highlights are like, I don't have Setanta.

Digifriendly

Homesick Alien wrote: »

The YouTube channel is woeful. If the only scores in a game are the penalties they will show the team's jogging out all the penalties being kicked and that's it. No line breaks, near misses, disallowed tries etc.

I disagree re Youtube channel for if you do not have Sky Sports, it is the only way of seeing all the tries from all the games.

icdg

former total wrote: »

I don't really know what the highlights are like, I don't have Setanta.

Been a few years since Setanta had a proper highlights show, it's just tape delayed coverage of games on a Monday now I think.

former total

icdg wrote: »

Been a few years since Setanta had a proper highlights show, it's just tape delayed coverage of games on a Monday now I think.

No, they have a highlights show as well as deferred games.

Homesick Alien

former total wrote: »

No, they have a highlights show as well as deferred games.

Again it's either the full match or (very) extended highlights - as in an hour long show dedicated to one match.

Also Setanta only seem to show the Irish matches in Ireland at least.

Homesick Alien

Digifriendly wrote: »

I disagree re Youtube channel for if you do not have Sky Sports, it is the only way of seeing all the tries from all the games.

I agree it's better than nothing, but very hard to give a good idea of how a game went in less than 2 mins

WinnyThePoo

If i had it my way. I'd have cantwell doing the 6 nation a coverage and against the head. She is a very good host. She recently did the football and very good and you could see the joy she had presenting.