RTE'S COVERAGE of Ireland's convincing 27-3 win over Scotland in the 2019 Rugby World Cup was marred by a major blunder that left viewers struggling to follow events on the pitch.
Ireland scored a resounding victory over their Six Nations rivals at International Stadium Yokohama in Japan, with the likes of Rory Best impressing in what was supposed to be Ireland's toughest Pool A fixture, with Japan, Samoa and Russia to come.
However, RTE’s broadcast of the match back in Ireland was marred by sound issues.
For a long period of the game, commentators Hugh Cahill and Donal Lenihan could barely be heard, due to an unknown technical issue.
After several minutes of virtually inaudible commentary, RTE was forced to switch to ITV’s commentary in the UK.
The problem was investigated and eventually resolved with Cahill and Lenihan returning soon after.
However, the issue left many fans unimpressed and marred what should have been an enjoyable morning of rugby for Ireland fans.
One viewer described the commentary as sounding as if it was coming "from a coke can outside the stadium", while another branded the incident "amateur hour".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxETbAXpuz8
“Are the two lads on RTE commentating from a cockpit?” a third asked.
Others complained of delays in sound.
“RTE Commentary out of sync with the pictures,” one fan wrote.
“Can’t watch like that. Fix it please.”
“Rte commentary like 5 seconds behind the play,” another fan said. “Sort it out.”
RTE subsequently issued a statement clarifying the cause of the issue.
"We experienced a technical difficulty with the ISDN lines which did not manifest itself during testing on Friday,” a spokesperson said.
“A decision was taken to move to World Feed commentary before the issue was resolved after 9 minutes."
See More: Ireland, Joe Schmidt, Rory Best, Rugby World Cup
