John Inverdale has confirmed that he is stepping down as presenter of the BBC’s rugby union coverage.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the 63-year-old confirmed that he is to take up a role on the RFU Council, representing the National Clubs Association.
As his new commitments working within English rugby union’s governing body would be a potential conflict of interest with his BBC TV role, Inverdale has decided to step away from presenting rugby union for the corporation after nearly 30 years.
He began hosting rugby union coverage on BBC TV as far back as the mid-1990s when he took over as host of Rugby Special, the BBC’s former long-running flagship rugby union programme that ran from 1966 to 2005.
Inverdale then became a regular presenter of the BBC’s live network rugby union coverage in the late 1990s, often covering the Five/Six Nations, autumn internationals and club rugby on Grandstand, before taking over from Steve Rider as the corporation’s main presenter of the sport in 2006.
But after 15 years at the helm, Inverdale anchored his last match for the BBC on 26 March, when France and Scotland brought the 2021 Six Nations to a thrilling climax in Paris.
Inverdale did make a subtle reference to both his departure and the uncertainty over the future of the Six Nations TV rights whilst on-air during the post-match red button Forum programme. He closed the show with the words:
“Thank you very much to you for watching over lots of years, but also the last couple of months, when the Six Nations started perhaps under a bit of a cloud, and the sun has come out and it’s really brightened up our lives over the last few weeks. See you around.”
With doubts surrounding the future of the BBC’s Six Nations coverage and with the live TV rights deal from 2022 onwards still to announced, Inverdale has decided to shift from the broadcasting side of the sport to administration.
Speaking about his decision to step away from his BBC rugby union role to Stephen Jones, rugby correspondent for The Sunday Times, Inverdale said:
“I got a call out of the blue asking if I wanted to sit on the RFU Council and represent the National Clubs Association and having spent 30 years saying that the RFU needs to sort itself out, I decided to think about it.
“I approached the BBC and they said that if I was a member of the governing body, I couldn’t do any England matches and in the background was the doubts as to whether the BBC would be involved in the future anyway.
“I’m almost ashamed to say, but I’m not ashamed at all, that I’m actually really enjoying it. I’m finding it fascinating being on the inside rather than lobbing stones at it from the outside.”
Over the last few years, Inverdale has gradually stepped away from many of his most high-profile broadcasting roles with BBC Sport.
On TV, he has stepped away from anchoring the BBC’s rowing and athletics coverage, while on Radio 5 live he recently bowed out as presenter of its Open golf and Cheltenham Festival coverage.
It was at Radio 5 live where Inverdale made his name in the 1990s, presenting the station’s coverage of many major sporting events over the years, including Wimbledon, Olympic Games, Ryder Cup, Rugby World Cup, football World Cups and European Championships.
He has also been involved with BBC TV’s coverage of many of those events, most notably hosting Today at Wimbledon between 2000 and 2014. He previously hosted his own BBC One sports chat show On Side between 1997 and 2001, whilst away from the BBC, he has presented ITV’s French Open tennis coverage since 2012 and anchored the network’s coverage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
A passionate life-long rugby union fan, Inverdale has been is closely involved with Esher RFC for many years.
Despite stepping down from his role on the BBC’s rugby union coverage, Inverdale will continue to be part of the BBC’s tennis commentary team at Queen’s and Wimbledon, as well as presenter of ITV’s coverage of Roland Garros.
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