Six Nations 2014 on the BBC: Sir Ian McGeechan joins the team
The 2014 RBS Six Nations kicks off on Saturday 1 February and the BBC is bringing audiences every moment of the tournament across TV, radio, online and mobile.
Captivating rugby union fans, last year's tournament was watched by 24.5m viewers, with a peak of 9.4m tuning in for the deciding game between Wales and England. The average audience for the live coverage was 5.1m, the highest ever recorded in Six Nations history.
Every game of this year’s tournament will be shown on BBC One and BBC One HD with live coverage starting on the opening day as Wales take on Italy (KO 14:30) and France face England (KO 17:00).
All matches will also be covered live on Radio 5 live or 5 live sports extra.*
New for 2014, British and Irish Lions and Scotland legend Sir Ian McGeechan joins the BBC television team, bringing his wealth of expertise gained as both a player and a coach.
He joins an inimitable team of experts bringing their professional analysis and views across television, including another of rugby union’s knights - Sir Clive Woodward, plus Jonathan Davies, Jeremy Guscott, Andy Nicol, Brian Moore, Keith Wood, Martyn Williams, Chris Paterson, Shane Williams, Phillip Matthews and Thomas Castaignede and on Radio 5 live, Matt Dawson, Gavin Hastings, Rob Jones and Denis Hickie
John Inverdale presents the BBC’s TV coverage, along with Gabby Logan, Jason Mohammed and Ross Harries. Commentary comes from Eddie Butler and Andrew Cotter. Jill Douglas and Sonja McLaughlan lead the pitch-side reporting.
On Radio 5 live, Ian Robertson leads the commentary team joined by Alastair Eykyn, Conor McNamara, Iain Carter and Gareth Lewis.
BBC Sport will provide comprehensive digital coverage across the entire Six Nations competition, including live streams of every match, available across four screens – PC, tablet, mobile and connected TV.
In addition, the BBC Sport website will provide Radio 5 live commentary, live text commentary, reports on every fixture, plus the latest news and analysis from the BBC’s team of expert journalists – simply access bbc.co.uk/sport from any device.
All content will also be available via the BBC Sport app for mobile and tablet devices, available for free on iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire. Audiences can catch-up on full coverage of every match through BBC iPlayer for up to a week after the live game.
The BBC News Channel will broadcast a special preview programme, Inside 6 Nations, before each weekend of the tournament, featuring interviews and the latest news and analysis.
Live coverage of the Women’s Six Nations featuring England v Ireland (Saturday 22 February) with commentary from Sara Orchard will be available on the Red Button with live video streams available on the BBC Sport website.
Commentary of England v Ireland (Saturday 22 February) and England v Wales (Friday 7 March) will also be available on 5 live sports extra with the full story of the women’s tournament including news and highlights being reported across the BBC Sport website.
Matt Dawson will host a Six Nations preview show ahead of the tournament on Radio 5 live on Thursday 30 January (19:30 – 21:00) where he will be joined by special guests for the latest news and analysis and to preview the forthcoming matches. 5 live Rugby will also broadcast regular programmes throughout the tournament.
Barbara Slater, Director BBC Sport, says: “As we look forward to the first major sporting event of 2014, the Six Nations kicks off what is certain to be a fantastic year for BBC Sport. I am delighted that the BBC will once again deliver an event that unites the nation and thrills audiences of all ages and hope that rugby's biggest annual competition continues to grow even more popular.”
BBC Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland:
BBC Cymru Wales will have match commentary of the Welsh games on television, radio and online. On television, there will be live coverage of each game on BBC One Wales and Y Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol is a BBC Cymru Wales production for S4C featuring Welsh commentary.
Scrum V Live Under 20’s will be broadcast live from Eirias Park in North Wales on Friday 31 January at 7pm when Wales face Italy and on Friday 7 February at 7.30pm for the Ireland v Wales match live from Athlone. A brand-new series of the popular Scrum V Classics will coincide with this year’s Six Nations fixtures and will be broadcast on the Thursday or Friday prior to the Wales games on BBC Two Wales. Contributors will include Colin Charvis, Adrian Hadley, Mike Rayer, Ryan Jones and Gerald Davies as they relive key games in past tournaments.
Scrum V Six Nations Specials will start Sunday 26 January with Ross Harries and special guests as they dissect the action and break the news for the first four programmes. Jason Mohammad will present the last two editions of the programme. Sport Wales will also be previewing each match during the weekly round-up.
On Radio Cymru, Yn y Ryc take a light-hearted look at the Six Nations tournament on match days BBC Radio Cymru’s Camp Lawn will bring listeners all the excitement of the game. BBC Radio Wales is Wales’s Six Nations Station with extensive coverage across the output including news and analysis, comedy, big-match build-up, live commentary and post-match phone-ins.
BBC Scotland and BBC Radio Scotland will have live coverage of all of Scotland’s games and a 30-minute documentary reflecting on Scotland’s 1984 Grand Slam win will broadcast on BBC Two Scotland ahead of the tournament.
BBC Northern Ireland will have all of Ireland’s games live on BBC Radio Ulster with outdoor broadcasts from the home games at the Aviva Stadium. BBC Newsline and the BBC Sport NI website will also have extensive preview and analysis of all Ireland's games throughout the tournament.
*except France v Italy on Sunday 9 February, which will have live updates on Radio 5 live
Six Nations 2014: BBC Television Schedule
Please note all broadcast details subject to change
Saturday 01/02/2014
BBC One & HD 14:00-16:30 Six Nations Rugby: Wales v Italy (14:30)
BBC One & HD 16:30-19:00 Six Nations Rugby: France v England (17:00)
Sunday 02/02/2014
BBC One & HD 14:30-17:00 Six Nations Rugby: Ireland v Scotland (15:00)
Saturday 08/02/2014
BBC One & HD 14:00-16:30 Six Nations Rugby: Ireland v Wales (14:30)
BBC One & HD 16:30-19:00 Six Nations Rugby: Scotland v England (17:00)
Sunday 09/02/2014
BBC One & HD 14:30-17:00 Six Nations Rugby: France v Italy (15:00)
Friday 21/02/2014
BBC One & HD 19:55-22:00 Six Nations Rugby: Wales v France (20:00)
Saturday 22/02/2014
BBC One & HD 13:15-15:30 Six Nations Rugby: Italy v Scotland (13:30)
BBC One & HD 15:30-18:00 Six Nations Rugby: England v Ireland (16:00)
Saturday 08/03/2014
BBC One & HD 14:00-16:30 Six Nations Rugby: Ireland v Italy (14:30)
BBC One & HD 16:30-19:00 Six Nations Rugby: Scotland v France (17:00)
Sunday 09/03/2014
BBC One & HD 14:30-17:00 Six Nations Rugby: England v Wales (15:00)
Saturday 15/03/2014
BBC One & HD 12:10-14:30 Six Nations Rugby: Italy v England (12:30)
BBC One & HD 14:30-16:45 Six Nations Rugby: Wales v Scotland (14:45)
BBC One & HD 16:45-19:00 Six Nations Rugby: France v Ireland (17:00)
