Voices of Rugby: Bill to Butler

Many of the clips I’ve included in this rugby memoir have focussed on great players doing great things. However, when watching them – as I did – via the medium of television, they were all accompanied by someone’s voice. As in any live TV sport broadcast, the commentator is crucial. Some are functional, forgotten as soon as they hand back to the studio. However, the best of them enhance the enjoyment, the sense of occasion with a witty turn of phrase or description of the action which complements the pictures perfectly.

For many years, rugby was synonymous with the brilliant Bill McLaren. All the iconic Five Nations matches had Bill at the microphone. With his immaculate Borders accent he was erudite, articulate and often playful. Remember, in the early days there were no pundits with who he could share the workload but even after eighty minutes I’d never tire of hearing his voice.

By the time he finally hung up his mic in 2002 aged 78, that wonderful diction was unsurprisingly just starting to fracture a fraction but the 2003 Six Nations seemed a tad empty without him. I’d taken him for granted. I loved those references, in response to a try, to the scorer’s home town with the joyful  “There’ll be dancing in the streets of (Ballymena/, Galashiels/insert place here)…” or, the more mundane lineout sequence such as “Murdoch throws, Martin palms, Wheel gathers” There was something warm and cosy on a cold winter’s afternoon about those commentaries and that still applies when listening to him on clips like this, from 1978.

Stay to the end and you’ll also be rewarded by a brief sign-off by Cliff Morgan, another mellifluous voice I associate with Seventies rugby. He’d been a Welsh playing legend, too, but his beautifully crafted reports were also broadcasting gold, especially on radio. He rarely carried a whole match and it was fortuitous that he was commentating in January 1973 for the thrilling Barbarians try against the All Blacks, culminating in the breathless “What a score!”

The line of rugby-related Welsh wordsmiths has continued with the wry Jonathan Davies, who cut his commentary teeth alongside McLaren, and the slightly older Eddie Butler, whose international appearances in the early Eighties predated Jonathan’s. The giant former back-row forward is a highly-respected journalist but his voice, whilst a tad harsher than Morgan’s, has in recent years also become part and parcel of TV sport. His measured delivery is also ideal for documentary voiceovers and promo sequences, even Pembroke Castle's welcome video! Whether the theme is medieval knights and Tudor kings or next week's Calcutta Cup battle, you can’t help but listen, spellbound.   

The Bard of Newport is also one half of the Beeb’s most entertaining double-act since The Two Ronnies. His deep lyrical timbre and hearty chuckle contrast so dramatically with Brian Moore that their on-air relationship is a key ingredient of the match. Butler portrays the kindly, erudite uncle while ‘Pitbull’ Moore is the naughty schoolboy railing against injustice. The ex-England hooker was wont to throw many punches during his career but now it’s his excitable verbal haymakers, often aimed at errant referees or daft players, which can irritate or resonate in equal measure. On occasions he has ‘lost it’ completely, especially when exasperated at England or a continually reset scrum. I used to hate hearing him moaning but now more often I found myself nodding in agreement. I’m just a Grumpy Old Man, too!

Ulsterman Jim Neilly and the BBC’s current Mr Versatile, Andrew Cotter provide complementary accents, but I’ve never had the need to tune into Five Live and hear the veteran Ian Robertson in full flow. I confess the ITV broadcasting team leave me completely underwhelmed, while the Anglo-centric pundit patrol, notably Wilkinson and Woodward, bore me to tears. It’s not that I dislike hearing English voices. Back in my dim-and-distant Rugby Special-viewing days, Nigel Starmer-Smith was the front man as well as ‘calling’ the live games McLaren couldn’t attend. Jeremy Guscott’s West Country burr makes a welcome change, while Gabby Logan is a very engaging presenter. I used to love John Inverdale’s laidback style on Five Live but he now seems a bit too associated with Twickers and the corporate RFU, even veering towards Alan Partridge territory. He does sport a nice line in natty scarves, though.

I always prefer my commentators neutral, which particularly seems to suit rugby, a sport where rival fans can mingle without trouble, anthems are respected and even a live cockerel on the Parc des Princes greensward was never ridiculed. The laissez-faire attitude towards on-pitch acts of grievous bodily harm doesn’t sit well with me, but international rugby will surely remain part of my winter weekend living room life.