‘Some bloke compared me to Putin’ – Andy Goode lifts lid on semi-final ‘backlash’ and why Leinster have ‘decent shot’ of shocking Bordeaux-Begles
Andy Goode previews the Leinster v Bordeaux-Begles Investec Champions Cup Final.
The Investec Champions Cup Final sees Andy Goode return to a seat so hot he was burned the last time he sat in it. “Lucky I’ve got thick skin,” he says. “The flak I got… other people might have crumbled.”
Goode is the former England fly-half turned podcast host and television pundit whose co-commentary for Premier Sports of the semi-final between holders Bordeaux and Bath whipped up a social media storm.
He was hugely critical of the host broadcaster, France Télévisions, and its director for not showing multiple angles of potential high tackles on Bath’s Alfie Barbeary.
Online criticism
His repeated objection irked many, including the most popular rugby content brand on YouTube. When Goode reacted he opened himself up to a pile-on. Even for the 17-cap international, it was a bruising experience.
“You get a load of people saying, ‘well done mate, love the pod, love what you do’, but it’s the harsh, ridiculous comments that stick with you: people calling for you to be sacked and all that.
“I’m a big believer that everyone’s welcome to an opinion because you want to get as many eyes on the game as possible and you want debate, because if we all just sat there and agreed on everything, life would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it?
“But some bloke compared me to Putin. ‘You’re worse than Putin, Kim Jong-un… and Netanyahu’. Blimey. I’m like, ‘this is a game of rugby, lads.'”
As Goode says, more than once, he has a thick skin. For good or for bad he calls things as he sees them. The Rugby Pod, which he hosts with Jim Hamilton, is the sport’s most listened-to podcast; his punditry among the sharpest around.
“I know as a co-commentator I’m not going to please everyone,” he says, as he packs for Bilbao where Bordeaux take on Leinster this Saturday. “I know that, from the little respect I get in my own house!
“But I have to be true to what I believe in. I have to give an opinion honestly of what I see.
“That means taking the good with the bad, as we did as players. The difference then was when people came at me telling me I was s**t, I was able to say: ‘Have a look at my medals: five Premierships and two European Cups’.”
Goode acknowledges he did “bite” on some of the more “vitriolic” posts but is keen to look forward rather than back to what can be learned from the commotion.
What the semi-final episode exposed was a lack of clarity and understanding around the TMO process that exists in the Champions Cup, club rugby’s blue riband cross-border competition.
Goode pointed out on comms that he did not have the ability to call down to a producer and request replays as France TV, rather than Premier Sports, was the host broadcaster.
Cedric Beaudou, France TV’s rugby editor, countered that the TMO had full control and access to the angles he or she wants to review. Only, we now know, these are available only if the TMO actually requests a “formal” review.
Playing semantics in the heat of the moment is a nonsense and, wisely, tournament organisers EPCR have responded by changing the protocols for Bilbao; utilising an independent TV director rather than relying on a host nation broadcaster.
“I’ve got no skin in the game with any of the teams involved,” adds Goode. “In Bordeaux I just went on what I saw. Maxime Lucu I felt should have been yellow carded. I stand by that. He ends up getting man of the match.
“There is this backlash on social media where people are telling me what I supposedly know. They’re saying to me, ‘the TMO’s got all the video replay angles’. And I’m like, ‘well, he doesn’t’.
“But you can’t correct people on social media, can you? Because it just heightens things.
“Look, it’s a learning for everyone. No-one is perfect. I certainly don’t claim to be. In this job you’re living in the moment. You’re going to make mistakes.
“On review, I probably said it one too many times in commentary. I hold my hands up. I’m conscious now that I can’t labour a point for the whole 80 minutes.
“Believe it or not I take this role very seriously. I watch back every game I work on. If I was no good I wouldn’t get employed, but I can always improve.”
Premier Sports empower their pundits to entertain as well as to inform. Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson, notably, crack jokes and interact with players before and after games.
The only condition is that if they give opinions they back them with reasoned argument.
Hope for Leinster
And so to Bilbao, the capital of Spain’s Basque Country, where the final is staged for the first time since Leinster last lifted the trophy in 2018. Bordeaux are odds-on but Goode sees hope for the Irish.
“Bordeaux are favourites, right?” he says. “The X-factor players they’ve got: Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert, Ben Tameifuna… what they can produce, those magic moments.
“But if there is a team that can suffocate them, be physical with them and bring line speed, I genuinely think it’s Leinster. Finals do funny things to people.
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“Have Bordeaux been rattled physically yet from a line speed and defence suppressed perspective? I’m not sure they have. Let’s not forget, Jacques Nienaber won a couple of World Cups with this sort of defence.
“It’s the beautiful team to watch playing unstructured rugby against a well-organised structured side in Leinster, who are coming into form at the right time.
“I’m not saying they will win but with the players they have and the backs-to-the-wall spikiness Leo [Cullen] has instilled in them of late, they have a decent shot.”
Premier Sports is the host broadcaster of the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup across the UK and Ireland. This weekend, Premier Sports will bring rugby fans live action from the EPCR Challenge Cup Final as Ulster take on Montpellier in Bilbao on Friday (Premier Sports 1 from 7pm); plus Saturday afternoon’s Investec Champions Cup Final between Bordeaux-Bègles and Leinster Rugby (live on Premier Sports 1 from 1.45pm). To join in visit www.premiersports.com @PremSportsTV for more than 400 top flight club rugby fixtures every season across EPCR, URC, Top 14, MLR in the USA and Japan League One.
