Meet the boys of the Tangaroa College First XV and the coach that turned the team from a struggling side to 1A contenders. Video / Anthony Costello
Review by Bruce Holloway
THREE KEY FACTS
Sky Sport resumed its First XV rugby coverage with Marlborough Boys’ College’s 28-26 win over Nelson College.
The match featured a controversial try, gaining over 8000 YouTube views and global attention.
Criticism arose for not addressing the try during post-match interviews, highlighting a lack of curiosity.
Bruce Holloway reviews Sky TV’s coverage of First XV rugby.
Sky Sport could hardly have asked for better raw material for restarting its live First XV rugby coverage than Marlborough Boys’ College’s thrilling 28-26 win over Nelson College.
As a publicity bonus, the match conspired to producethe most controversial try of the year at all levels, which has since had over 8000 views on YouTube.
In terms of broadcast production, for the Nelson match, Sky had three “in-studio” commentators, with lead Jeff McTainsh assisted by Mils Muliania and Taylor Curtis and their product was broadly on a par with anything you might see at NPC level.
Sky had four cameras on site, nine microphones, including a referee mic, and a team working out of their production control room and they expect to have broadly similar cover for all First XV broadcasts.
After a two-year hiatus, it was a welcome nationwide return (apart from in Auckland of course, where 1A principals still have a lingering dread of media).
McTainsh was verbally enthusiastic and engaging in capturing the mood of the day – even though he was 900km away – with some salient trivia factoids thrown in, while the others added their pundit reckons. The camera work was high quality and there was just one small technical hitch at the 48th-minute mark, which was quickly sidestepped.
Sky said it would share audience engagement stats for First XV rugby later in the coverage season but for now would only say the match drew a similar number of eyeballs to the first match Sky broadcast in 2022, which the broadcaster considered a good start to the season.
“We’ve received enthusiastic support from the Nelson community for the first game,” Sky said in a statement. “We enjoyed hearing from a group of Nelson College old boys who were excited to watch the match from their retirement home. Sky sent them some sausage rolls for game day.”
But as with the rugby teams they will be covering over the next few months, there are some “work-ons”.
Marlborough centre Anru Erasmus opted to kick the penalty – right in front of the posts – to the left corner, where lock Finn Neal touched down. The controversial move has divided fans and critics alike. Photo / Sky Sport
After Marlborough’s Anru Erasmus slyly kicked the ball sideways off the penalty tee to the corner for his lock to score a critical try, it instantly became a rugby discussion point all over the globe, with publications as far away as the UK and South Africa giving their reckons within hours.
And yet, during the post-match Sky interviews there was no mention of something which was already triggering headlines 18,000km away.
The failure to seek any on-site reaction to the most sensational play of the season was a glaring oversight and showed an astonishing lack of curiosity from the commentary staff. Instead, Curtis made glib inquiries about what was said at halftime and future “learnings” (sport’s all-time worst malapropism). Still, as they say in First XV rugby, always next time.
Try-scorer: Name Withheld (unless you’re watching the telly)
It was fascinating to see full team line-ups screened pre-match on television for the Nelson-Marlborough match, whereas on the college-filed team lists displayed on the official Rugby Xplorer platform, Nelson had two “Name Withheld” players listed.
Those names weren’t withheld at all on the television coverage.
As it was, the match captured worldwide attention. But it might have been even more memorable if broadcasters had also found themselves attributing a try to “Name Withheld” on live television.
There may be perfectly valid reasons for First XV players having their names officially withheld.
But does anyone else see a teeny-weeny incongruity in a player being listed as “Name Withheld” on the code’s official administrative platform – but then being named and filmed on live television? It certainly wouldn’t escape the notice of Auckland’s 1A principals.
* Sky Sport’s live coverage of First XV rugby continues with a broadcast of the Kyocera North Harbour match between Westlake Boys High School and Rosmini College on Saturday June 7, 12pm.
