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Legendary BBC commentator announces retirement with parting comment on bias claims

Brian Moore has announced he is retiring from rugby commentary after a 26-year career

[Former British Lions player Brian Moore is retiring from rugby commentary.]

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Former British Lions player Brian Moore is retiring from rugby commentary.(Image: 2013 Getty Images)

Brian Moore has confirmed he is stepping down from live rugby commentary. The former England and British and Ireland Lions star will take the microphone one last time this weekend as France face the Red Roses in the Women's Six Nations Grand Slam decider.

The occasion will draw the curtain on a remarkable 26-year career behind the mic, with Moore hinting that details of his next venture are likely to surface shortly. Breaking the news in the Daily Telegraph, Moore looked back on his near three-decade spell in the commentary box, paying tribute to his partnership with the legendary Welshman Eddie Butler.

The duo became the defining voices of the Six Nations, forging a deep bond both in front of the microphone and away from it.

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"I have been extraordinarily lucky to have worked with some of the best commentators in the business," he said, reports Wales Online.

"My long-time partnership with the late Eddie Butler was a relationship which affected me more personally than I ever imagined when it began.

"Through Eddie's passion I got an insight into the preternatural and emotional world of Welsh rugby fandom, that could in turns be savage and destructive but also effusive and communal in a way that few outside the country can appreciate.

"The sight of three middle-aged Welsh fans in tears behind mee in Cardiff for their first Grand Slam win of three under Warren Gatland (2008) brought home to me the depth to which rugby was woven into the soul of Welsh fans."

[Brian Moore in the commentary box alongside Eddie Butler]

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Brian Moore in the commentary box alongside Eddie Butler(Image: Unknown)

Yet despite his obvious appreciation for the fervour of Welsh rugby supporters, Moore frequently became a target of frustration for many on this side of the Severn, with fans in Scotland and Ireland sometimes accusing him of favouritism.

"Of course, I made mistakes and not everybody rated my efforts positively," he added.

"I think it took me about a decade to persuade most Celtic fans that I was not irredeemably biased towards England, but I eventually gave up trying to gauge this issue when the BBC complaints log against me for a Calcutta Cup game had equal complaints of bias from both Scottish and English fans.

"You have to accept that some people will not like anything you say and much though I yearned to protest about it, everybody is entitled to their opinion."

However, he did call for greater support for pundits and broadcasters who face abuse in today's social media landscape.

"That freedom of expression should however come with some boundaries in a civil society, which I accept is probably impossible," he said. "The last 15 years of this career have been against the background of social media and the ability for anybody to post virtually anything they want in public.

"Libel and public disorder offences cover the internet in extremis, but I do not accept that personal abuse comes with the job and broadcasters should support their commentators when this happens."

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