A who’s who of northern hemisphere rugby.
The 2022 Six Nations kicks off this weekend and in both Ireland and the UK, big broadcasters are sharing the spoils. We now know the Six Nations pundits, too.
In a move designed to maximise reach, audience and stave off streamers and paid-for TV, the Six Nations coverage in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales will be shared by broadcasters.
ITV and the BBC will show free-to-air matches in the UK, which viewers here should be able to access with certain providers, while Virgin Media and RTE are divvying up the Irish coverage.
The punditry, commentary and reporter panels have now been confirmed, so we thought we would take a closer look at what is available.
RTE’s Six Nations pundits & team
Jacqui Hurley [pictured above, with Joe Molloy] and Daire O’Brien will share hosting duties for RTE’s coverage of the championship, as well as the Under 20s and, later this year, the women’s competition.
The list of pundits is very impressive. It includes Jamie Heaslip, Jerry Flannery, Stephen Ferris, Fiona Coghlan, Niamh Briggs, Bernard Jackman, Eddie O’Sullivan and Louise Galvin.
Clare McNamara will do the interviews, before and after games, while the commentators will be Hugh Cahill and Des Curran, with Donal Lenihan on co-comms.
Virgin Media Six Nations pundits & team
Joe Molloy will front the Virgin Media coverage with pundits including Rob Kearney, Alan Quinlan, Jenny Murphy, Grace Davitt, Matt Williams and Sene Naoupu.
Dave McIntyre will be on the commentary beat. We may get a Ronan O’Gara appearance or two, if we’re all lucky.
BBC Six Nations pundits & team
The BBC does not have a full slate of coverage but they have big names for the games they do have, starting with Scotland v. England on Saturday.
Gabby Logan replaces John Inverdale as the host, with pundits including Sam Warburton, Martin Johnson, John Barclay and Dylan Hartley.
Hartley, Jonathan Davies, Chris Paterson, Brian Moore and Andy Nicol will feature alongside commentators Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter and Sara Orchard. Sonja McLaughlan and Lee McKenzie will be doing the pre- and post-game interviews. Ugo Monye is the new host of a revamped ‘Rugby Special’, on Sunday evenings.
ITV Six Nations pundits & team
Mark Pougatch and Jill Douglas are splitting the hosting duties as ITV has two of the three games each weekend (starting with Ireland vs Wales and France vs. Italy, this weekend).
Pundits on the ITV roster include Brian O’Driscoll, Rory Best, Gareth Thomas, Benjamin Kayser, Maggie Alphonsi, James Hook, Clive Woodward, Jonny Wilkinson and Lawrence Dallaglio
Miles Harrison and Nick Mullins are the ITV commentators, supported by Ben Kay, David Flatman, Shane Williams, Gordan D’Arcy, Scott Hastings and Danielle ‘Nollie’ Waterman.
S4C Six Nations pundits & team
For those of you in Wales, S4C brings you Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol, which will be presented by Sarra Elgan, each week. They have all the Wales games and their pundits include Ken Owens, Nigel Owens, Rhys Patchell, Sioned Harries, Andrew Coombs, Nicky Robinson and current Wales women’s captain Siwan Lillicrap.
Cennydd Davies is on commentary duties and will be joined by former Wales captain Gwyn Jones and Jonathan Davies over the championship.
