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Barnes will be back for this season's Heineken Cup coverage. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
analysts

From player to pundit: rugby's real transition

Stuart Barnes and Scott Quinnell both enjoyed excellent playing careers before moving into the media.

AS THE NEW rugby season really starts to kick into life, it’s not only the players and coaches who are gearing up for the major games ahead.

Commentators, pundits and analysts are preparing themselves for the start of the Heineken Cup next weekend, with Sky Sport’s Scott Quinnell and Stuart Barnes among them. The rugby coverage on Sky has faced some criticism for bordering on over-hype, particularly during the recent Lions tour, but they do deliver a slick product.

Barnes in particular has attracted plenty of negative reaction in recent years, with one anti-Barnes Facebook page drawing almost 8,000 likes. However, in person at the Irish Heineken Cup launch at the beginning of the week, it is immediately clear that the former England international is knowledgeable and passionate about the game.

The 50-year-old understands that facing criticism is part and parcel of a role that increases in difficulty every year. Barnes says that when he first started working in the media after his retirement from playing in 1994 he found it relatively easy to comment on rugby.

“It’s a bigger challenge every single year. First year out, you know exactly what’s going on. Second year out you know a lot, third year out you know a little less. You watch a vast amount, so when you’ve got players saying, ‘he hasn’t played for a while, he doesn’t know what he’s on about’, that’s not true.

That basically means no one can have an opinion unless you’re a player, which is clearly stupid. You have to watch a lot of stuff, and what you have to do, as well, is talk to coaches a little bit more.”

As a Lions tourist in 1993 and having been capped for England 10 times, Barnes managed to build an extensive network of friends in the rugby world. He explains that maintaining and building upon those relationships is a key part of his job now.

“I had 20 minutes or so with Pat Lam today, which is great for me because I can ask him about Connacht. But more importantly still, I can have a chat about what’s happening in Auckland, what their views are there. I catch up with Wayne Smith too. These are very important things and you have to keep them up. If you don’t do that, you become an ex-player who’s just on the gravy train.”

Barnes stresses that many supporters don’t realise the extent of the research he and his fellow commentators and pundits put in during the course of the season, with the actual games only a small part of their working hours. However, he does feel lucky to be working in a sport he loves.

imageQuinnell on Lions duty during the summer. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland.

“You have to work very hard at it but I’m 50 years of age and my great passion in life has been rugby since the age of 10. So if you make a living from it and you’re over 50, you have to show enough respect to be serious about it. If you’re not serious about a bunch of overgrown blokes wearing shorts, then your lifestyle is a bit shallow!”

Quinnell has transitioned gradually into the media world since hanging up his boots in 2005, with a particularly prominent role in Sky’s Lions tour coverage. The Welshman knows many of the players he comments on personally, but says that pundits can’t be afraid to criticize the men on the pitch.

“I was always told, when I finished nine years ago, that if you can look the mother of the player who you’re criticizing in the eye, and you can give a fair argument of why you were saying it, then say it. Because I was there at the end [of his playing career] and if I had bad games, then I had no problem with criticism.

You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. As long as you’re honest, that’s where you tend to get the respect from.”

Supporters’ respect comes from that honest approach, but Quinnell points out that it’s a two-way relationship. While he is confident in his knowledge of the game, the 41-year-old admits that there are many fans with equal levels of understanding.

“I think with the players and the fans, if you’re not honest when you do the job we do, you get found out very quickly because the fans have a huge amount of knowledge on the game. We can’t forget that as well.

“I think that sometimes you speak to some of the fans and they’re more knowledgeable than you. We’re just very fortunate that we get to do what we do. I try not to be controversial for controversy’s sake.”

Quinnell says his outlook on rugby and his appreciation for the sport have increased greatly since he began working as an analyst. He now watches far more rugby than he did when playing and views the games in a different way.

“You’re very insular when you’re playing. You look at yourself, you may look at your opposition to see what they do line out and scrum-wise, how they defend. But all of a sudden now, you’re looking at the bigger picture, the different styles of play, the way people orchestrate a game. You have a broader knowledge now of the game than you did when you were playing.”

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