Anna Murray
Just tell us what to think in these trying times, Scotty!
worried about missing much, what with a full two hours of broadcasting to get through before kick-off.
The ever polished James Gemmell was once again joined in the studio by past and present rugby stars, Isa Nacewa, Kristina Sue and Damian McKenzie.
As always, they were complete pros in discussing the task ahead of the All Blacks. There was also time for a little pre-game comedy, some of it intentional.
Anika Moa was back with her prerecorded chats with the All Blacks stars, this time chiding Sonny Bill Williams for calling her “Auntie” and asking TJ Perenara about his “lovely cheekbones”.
It was also highly amusing getting to enjoy the studio’s augmented reality animations.
As a bus rumbled across the screen to demonstrate the power of the teams’ scrummaging, Gemmell became cheerful roadkill.
Meanwhile, virtual All Blacks kept popping out of the ground to stand lifelessly next to stats man Jon Preston. It was pure comedy.
And when the Spark Sport commentary team is missing somebody like Justin Marshall to give us phrases like, “Me oh my, I have enjoyed that, yes boy,” you have to take the lols where you can find them.
The commentary
You wouldn’t get anything close to that stupid out of Scotty Stevenson and his sidekick, Stephen Donald, in the commentary box.
The pair have proven themselves a solid, knowledgeable team – with bonus correct pronounciation of players’ names — through the whole tournament and they managed the same as the All Blacks slumped to an inspired English side.
Stevenson did a good job in sounding excited — rather than panicked — as the English ran riot all over the field. Donald also sounded convincingly optimistic just before half-time when he said, “You feel [the All Blacks’] time will come.” (Spoiler alert: It didn’t.)
It would have been nice to have a strong opinion from one of them in some of the more contentious moments though. Sure, a commentator’s job is to relay what’s unfolding on the field, but to say “I will leave you at home to judge” when there’s a possible yellow card in the air feels like a cop-out. Just tell us what to think in these trying times, Scotty!
Meanwhile, TVNZ’s Kimberlee Downs continued her assured performance, discussing the match with Sir Graham Henry and Conrad Smith. She and Smith were all nervous excitement pre-match as they stood next to the Webb Ellis Cup, not knowing it would be the last time a Kiwi would stand that close to it for at least another four years. They tried not to lose all hope on air, but Smith couldn’t even convince himself there was still a chance of an All Blacks victory when asked about it late in the game.