South Wales Echo

Blade runner... will new Kiwi signing provide Scarlets with a new cutting edge?

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EDDIE Butler, Martyn Williams and Shane Williams are among a host of rugby pundits who are leaving BBC Wales to work on Guinness PRO14 coverage for Premier Sports, writes Delme Parfitt.

It emerged last week that regular Scrum V presenter Ross Harries and studio analyst Sean Holley are on their way to work for the subscripti­on channel which pinched the rights for the competitio­n from the Beeb last March.

Now analyst-turned-commentato­r Butler and the two Williams’ are leaving the BBC as well, according to a report on the Dai Sport website by Graham Thomas, himself a former BBC Wales employee.

Worryingly, the website also reveals that BBC Wales have yet to agree new radio rights for the PRO14, even though the first round of matches is under three weeks’ away.

The capturing of the Williams boys is no surprise. Both have establishe­d themselves in the rugby media since retiring from playing and are part of a younger breed of pundits that the paid-for channel is said to be keen to attract.

Experience­d commentato­r Wyn Griffiths, who has worked for the BBC and S4C is also joining the Premier Sports team.

The loss of staff is a further blow to BBC Wales, who are left with no top-flight domestic rugby to screen.

They do have a deal to show semi-profession­al action from the Welsh Premiershi­p, but that is only a one-year agreement.

The BBC shares Six Nations coverage with ITV and only has a year left of its contract to screen Wales’ autumn internatio­nal matches. Sky are said to be preparing a bid to snatch those rights for the 201920 season and beyond.

Premier Sports won the rights to host all of the PRO14’s 152 matches live in a developmen­t that stunned BBC Wales.

Twenty-one of those matches will be shown on the company’s free-to-air sister channel FreeSports.

The new subscripti­on channel will cost viewers £9.99 per month but will mean every match is available to watch for the first time in history. THE Scarlets and New Zealand. They just seem to go together. 1972, Regan King’s soft hands, the midfield glue that is Hadleigh Parkes – all gifts to Llanelli from the Land of the Long White Cloud.

And there could soon be another, with the Scarlets’ latest Kiwi import Blade Thomson linking up with the region after finishing the Super Rugby season with the Hurricanes.

So, just what can we expect from the new recruit? Will he be as much as a success as the likes of Parkes and Johnny McNicholl?

We’ve taken a look at the 27-yearold’s game with the help of New Zealand Herald journalist Liam Napier to see whether the Scarlets have found another Maori gem...

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