Sky is not the limit, after all

IS sport a science, or merely something that brings some fun into our all too dreary lives? There ain't any doubt that Sky Sports has revolutionised the way armchair fans view things nowadays, their systematic analysis leaving no stone unturned in the search for truth.

Or so they would like us to believe.

It is all very well using computers and fancy graphics to inform us that Ian Woan's goal for Nottingham Forest against Newcastle United on Thursday night - you know, the one which effectively won the title for Manchester United - reached a speed of 91.1 mph and was struck from 26.3 yards. Figures don't lie, do they? Who would want to contradict them anyway?

Two days later though, at the Pilkington Cup final between Bath and Leicester, the Sky Sports rugby commentary team were hardly the hard-hitting men of words they would like us to believe.

Call me innocent or naive, but from my neutral viewer's chair the thought did cross my mind that referee Steve Landers botched things ever so slightly by awarding a penalty try in the dying seconds of the match to literally hand Bath more silverware.

But no, I was wrong. "Brave". "Courageous." The Sky commentators couldn't heap enough praise on the referee. Hardly a word for the heartbreak and heartache felt by the Leicester Tigers who had been mauled by officialdom gone mad.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but could the reason for Sky's effusions have anything to do with the fact that Bath play Wigan at Maine Road on Wednesday night in a Union versus League showdown to be televised live by Sky Sports, as the brash promo informed us within moments of the referee's final whistle?

Still, the English Premiership coming to a close will leave a gigantic void in Sky's schedules and presenter Richard Keys was in rather subdued mood as he reminded Trevor Francis on Thursday night last, "it is almost over now." And it is over now, after yesterday's Super Sunday.

Whether Sky like it or not, soccer life goes on and terrestrial viewers will be the big winners all this week. RTE screen live today's FAI Cup final from Lansdowne Road and also next Saturday's English FA Cup final from Wembley. BBC I will, of course, also cover the Liverpool-Manchester United cup final live.