Behind the scenes with BT Sport

Colin Newboult
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Ahead of the final round of the Champions Cup, Planet Rugby were invited by BT Sport to check out how they operate a big European weekend.

The pinnacle of club rugby in the northern hemisphere needs the coverage to match it and BT Sport, having become the official broadcast partner in the UK from the start of the 2018/19 season, are charged with that responsibility.

It is a mammoth challenge and often an intense operation for everybody involved in the broadcast.

Preparation

For Edinburgh v Montpellier and Wasps v Leinster, the two outside broadcasts Planet Rugby were shown around, they have a crew of 75, led by director Daniel Hudson.

The work goes on well before transmission, however, with some of the crew arriving two days before to set up, while preparation by the graphics team, presenters and commentators are extensive.

It is an underappreciated part of the job with Ali Eykyn, who covered Friday’s encounter at Murrayfield, having to do extensive research before game day. As he readily admits, it is not particularly an arduous task, especially given the access they are afforded, but it is certainly an undervalued aspect of his workload.

“I think people probably underestimate the prep,” Eykyn said. “I came from a radio background so I was used to doing a ton of games and sometime I didn’t get much prep time as I was working shifts at the BBC.

“My games were my bonus at the end of the weekend and I didn’t have a lot of prep time, so you get used to moving on the hoof and picking stuff up. But it’s my job to know how everybody fits into the jigsaw puzzle.

“I always liken it to prepping for an exam in that hopefully the process of doing it, some of it’s in and then, at the right moment, can hopefully come out but, if it doesn’t, I can always have a glance down.”

While extensive knowledge is required, it is mainly about player identification and following the action on the ball, but it can be a mightily difficult task when a pitch is filled with 31 individuals (including the referee).

That means Eykyn often heads out midweek and visits the clubs to gain a grasp of who’s who, which is especially useful at the beginning of the campaign.

“If I’m not doing a feature, I will still go to one, if not two, training grounds earlier in the week,” he said.

“Particularly at the start of the season, I’m getting used to what everybody looks like, who’s had their hair cut, what colour boots they’re wearing and simple stuff like that.

“You can then pick their names out when there’s a pile of bodies. Those kind of things matter and obviously new players coming through.

“You also get to chat in an unpressurised environment with the coaches, so just to stand for five minutes on the edge of the pitch with Dai Young, or whoever it is, it’s priceless to get a little bit of insight, which you wouldn’t get in a more staged format.

“Those tend to be the places you pick up the odd little nugget. There’s obviously a lot of information given in confidence, which I’m careful with, but my job, aside from calling names, is to try and pepper the commentary with something you didn’t know.”

Access can be harder, though, when it comes to the European arena. With Eykyn focused on the Premiership and well versed in matters within English rugby, more research is required when it comes to the Celtic and French sides, but often without the same luxuries afforded.

He added: “We’re spoilt in the Premiership because we see them every week, I know I can go in and get what I need. If I’ve got Montpellier, Munster, or whoever it is, it’s much, much harder.

“They’re generally quite good when you get hold of them but some of them, if you don’t have that relationship, they’re a bit suspicious, worried about if you’re going to pass it onto people, which of course you don’t, but if they don’t know you, they don’t know you’re not going to do that.”

Presenters don’t have those issues but preparation is just as important when it comes to organising the script, helping with the running order and knowing all the permutations heading into the respective contests.

Former England and Northampton lock Martin Bayfield has become a key part of the BT Sport coverage and fronted the games in both Edinburgh and Coventry last weekend.

“We have a production meeting where we chat through the running order,” Bayfield said. “We received a final version the day before the game and because I’m presenting I change it around slightly, so I write my opening words and links and then just adapt it.

“That’s got all the information I need on it and any extra information I need, I just flip it over and then I’ll look at it and think, ‘what the hell have I written?’ And I won’t be able to read it!”

Build-up

Once everything is set up and all are confident in their roles and responsibilities, the onus falls on Bayfield to guide the viewer through the preamble to the main event.

The ex-second row had slightly contrasting roles in the two outside broadcasts, with the whole show on Friday coming live from Edinburgh, while BT were based in the studio on Sunday, before switching to Bayfield and co.

More pressure was duly on the first match of the weekend, with a 45-minute build-up giving them plenty of chance to slip up. Features are organised, however, interviews with the head coaches or directors of rugbys – done before broadcast – are all lined up and a set running order is organised for Bayfield to generally adhere to.

It is both preordained and reactive as the director determines whether to stick to a piece, should the guests and analysts be offering something particularly insightful, or move onto another segment, as Bayfield explained.

“I have an earpiece in getting stuff all the time, and particularly on Saturday and Sunday when qualifying is moving all over the place,” he said. “We will have the basic count to ‘you’ve got 30 seconds until you take us to a break,’ or linking to Jill (Douglas) doing an interview, or a feature, or you may get the director or producer saying, ‘we’ve got to drop that,’ because we’ve gone too long on a chat.

“Of course, someone may chuck in a fact – amazing stats folders are put together for us – and he will filter it in and then the trick is to understand what he’s said, and not look like you’ve just been electrocuted.”

What is especially impressive, however, is the dedication and care taken by all members of the team, who work incredibly hard to make it a success.

No doubt part of that is driven by the fact that BT Sport is the only place to watch every Champions Cup game live in the UK. It was a shared venture between Sky and BT before the latter became the official broadcast partner and Bayfield admitted that it increased the pressure.

He added: “What is interesting about doing it on our own now is that you kind of feel you have real ownership of it and you feel even more responsible as we are the only option. If people don’t like what we’re doing, there’s nowhere else to watch it.

“We have a continuity which we didn’t have before. We would do a game and then you would sit around for a couple of hours, and then we would do another game. We have this continuity, we have this greater responsibility but that makes it fun.”

During the game and post-match

As Bayfield’s job finishes for the meantime, the commentator and his co-commentators take over to guide the viewer through the action. On Friday, Eykyn called the game and he was assisted by former Scotland international Andy Nicol and England World Cup winner Ben Kay, who provided the analysis.

It is fast-paced and director Hudson is in constant communication with seemingly every key member of the team, from the camerapersons, to those who provide the replays and also the commentators.

Hudson generally dictates which shots to be displayed or when to go to a replay but Eykyn, Kay and Nicol also get a say and can communicate that to the truck.

“We can almost direct what replays are shown, particularly if I’ve seen something that’s maybe not been seen by the camera that was on,” Nicol explained.

The pictures also, to a large extent, determine what those on the mic can say, rather than concentrating on something which is not currently on camera, despite Nicol’s and Kay’s ability to alter the rhetoric.

Eykyn said: “It’s supposed to be a perfect meshing of speech and pictures, sometimes it works better than others. Some directors listen better than others, some would say that some commentators respond to the pictures better than others, so I’m supposed to respond to the pictures that he gives me.

“Equally, if we set off on a tangent about discussing something, you would like to think that they will then respond by providing the right people in shot.

“For somebody who hasn’t done it much or has never done it, they sometimes don’t understand that they are commentating to what’s on telly. They’re not really commentating on what they’re seeing live in front of them, you end up looking at the monitor a lot more than you think you might.”

Those points were perfectly demonstrated on one particular occasion when Edinburgh prop WP Nel did an audacious through-the-legs pass, which is a highlight reel moment that both TV and social media loves.

It took a while for them to find the right shot, however, and for a replay to be turned around. Once they did, there was a debate as to whether the action had gone on too long, but it was decided that it could be incorporated into the broadcast.

Nicol duly picked it up and linked to Edinburgh’s performance and confidence in their style of play, and as a result, the transition was seamless.

“We always want it to be conversational rather than formulaic,” the former Scotland scrum-half added. “We’re all looking at each other and there’s just a natural rhythm and feel about who should come in when.”

Looking elsewhere other than on the pitch can present issues, though, and particularly as a commentator, it is about balancing his time between the action, the monitor and his notes.

Eykyn said: “I’m always nervous of spending too much time looking down because if you look down, you’re not looking up and stuff happens really quickly, and you can get caught out really fast.

“Obviously, if I don’t see it then a lot of other people miss it, or worse still, they see it and I don’t, and then I look like a proper idiot.

“It’s always dangerous to spend too much time looking down for that reason, but also the match kind of has a life of its own and I don’t want to be boring everybody with statistics.”

Eykyn, and fellow commentator Nick Mullins, who called Wasps’ encounter with Leinster, are incredibly experienced broadcasters, but there is certainly an art to be learned when there are several voices in their ear as they speak.

It is perhaps another facet the viewer underestimates and it is something which often surprises people who have transitioned into being a presenter, commentator or pundit, although Mullins, having garnered plenty of expertise in the role, has found a way of dealing with it.

“I always accredit it to being in a pub,” he said. “There are interesting conversations going on around you, and you’re aware of the conversations, but you can prioritise.

“Also, technically you can change the volume, even up to the commentary box, but you do find the level where you can hear the director, the producer and the graphics guy in one ear and I put the referee in the other ear.”

Last Sunday, Mullins was joined by ex-Wales and British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton, who is relatively new to his role as co-commentator and pundit, and the 30-year-old admitted that there have been difficult elements to adapt to.

He said: “I love doing it but I do find the earpiece thing is by far the hardest, the only thing is that you don’t want to speak over another commentator.

“You’ve got two seconds to figure out whether it’s the director or another commentator and you have to realise when you have to jump in and out, so it is quite challenging.

“I did bits throughout my career because I knew it was going to be something I was going to go into. I always did ‘X’ amount of telly appearances so you kind of get used to how it works, so it wasn’t completely alien.”

Adapt Warburton has, however, and Mullins has been impressed by the former back-rower’s ability to articulate the nuances of the game, something which is crucial in a sport as technical as rugby.

He added: “Sam’s brilliant at this, not because he was a brilliant player, though, as he’s testing himself in a completely different environment. Sam clearly understands rugby but there’s a difference between understanding rugby and having the ability to explain it to my mum, as well as you and I.

“To make that usable and to make that digestible is a real skill and Sam can do that. Us, who never got near the level Sam played at, try and overcomplicate it sometimes when actually, if you listen to people like Sam, it’s annoyingly quite a simple game.”

It is an intense 80 minutes for the commentators, pundits and those in the truck, but it does not stop there, with the post-match analysis that follows.

Once again, BT tends to alternate the style, but both Friday’s and Sunday’s games were organised the same way. They set up a position inside among the supporters with the presenter, guest and pundit, and often get the director of rugby or head coach from the winning team to come for an interview.

Surprisingly, some clubs don’t like this and, if not, it is done live with a reporter in another area, usually in the tunnel.

Finally, when that is all done and the contest has been dissected, the transmission ends, but the job is not finished for the matchday rig and tech crew, who aren’t offsite until a few hours after the game has finished, while the equipment doesn’t fully leave the stadium until a couple of days later.

A live game is therefore a five-day operation, which sees many different pieces join together and allow what is only a three-hour broadcast to run smoothly.

BT Sport brings you the moments that matter with exclusively live action from every Heineken Champions Cup match this season. Watch on TV and via the award winning BT Sport App. bt.com/sport

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