ITV - Worst Coverage of the Best Tournament?

posted on 03 October 2011

The World Cup is hotting up. In fact, it has been close to boiling point for a few weeks. It could event be the most tightly contested tournament ever. As far as we see it, there is only Argentina in the quarter final line-up who would not expect to make the final.

Ireland's magnificent hammering of Australia & Tonga's upset against France will go down in RWC Folklore - but will it?

Certainly in the UK, I feel the coverage of the tournament has been nothing short of disappointing. It seems the occasional news report on the social antics of the England Squad is the most in-depth analysis the event is getting.

The games aside, I wonder if the scheduling chiefs at ITV gave any thought to running any magazine programmes, building stories around the players from countries such as Georgia, Romania & Russia, profiling the fascinating cities of New Zealand, or investing money into commentators who have something effective to say during the Rugby.

The World Cup is the one event that can put the sport in the global shop window. I recently travelled to Italy, and found this football dominated country encapsulated by the tournament. During my stay, the Azzuri put a great 40 minutes in against Australia before fading away to a comfortable defeat. Post-Match, an enthusiastic group of ex-players and analysts discussed the game in detail, before featuring a report on what the Italian team had been 'up-to' ahead of the game. Really Interesting Stuff.

Aside of the official website daily reports which are excellent, there has been nothing. I can't help but feel that if the tournament had been covered by Sky or the BBC, we would know about the Russian lads who have left their jobs to compete at the World Cup, we would have a better understanding about what Rugby means to the people of New Zealand. We would know more about mysterious places like Rotorua, Queenstown, Invercargill and Palmerston North.

ITV - you have three weeks to sort it out.