Craig Doyle is very much seen as the face of Premiership Rugby coverage on BT Sport. Due to being such a crucial member of Rugby on BT Sport. So that means a lot of people want to know what sort of rugby background Doyle has.
Did Craig Doyle play rugby? Craig Doyle did not play Rugby. He has been in journalism since graduating from the London College of Printing. He certainly does not have the same playing background that some of his BT Sports colleagues have.
The large majority of commentators and analysts on BT Sport’s coverage of Rugby are previous professional players. Guys like Brian O’Driscoll, Ben Kay and Ugo Monye were all professional rugby players before they joined BT Sport. You might think that the channel’s main anchor would have also played rugby at a high level but this is not the case.
Doyle has worked in media since he graduated in the early 1990s. He began his career working on local radio before hosting a children’s show on ITV. He worked with the BBC and ITV in his early career before joining BBC Sport in 2004.
Doyle became the anchor of the channel’s international rugby coverage including the Six Nations Championship. Having been released from his contract with the BBC he joined ITV Sport in 2008 but originally worked on football coverage.
Doyle eventually joined BT Sport in 2013 and has been the lead presenter with the channel since then. He has not played rugby for any club on record. In fact, he was not massively interested in becoming a rugby player at any point. He actually wanted to be a Veterinarian before working in the media.
What is Craig Doyle famous for?
Craig Doyle is known for hosting a few different things. In Ireland, he is primarily famous due to being the host of Tonight with Craig Doyle which was presented on RTE One. But he is much more famous for being a rugby presenter.
Doyle first started working on the live coverage of Rugby Union in 2004 when he joined BBC Sport. Doyle was the anchor for the channel’s international rugby coverage, with a lot of people becoming familiar with his work through Doyle covering the Six Nations Championship on BBC Sport.
What Doyle has become most famous for is his work with BT Sport. The Irish presenter joined BT Sport in 2013 and has been a key part of the channel’s coverage of the Gallagher Premiership, European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup.
Doyle is the main anchor of the coverage meaning he is present on at least one of the games at a weekend. He is crucial in bringing in some of the people on the coverage with some more rugby experience as well as making the analysis of the game more exciting to watch.
But his work with BT Sport has not just been solely focused on rugby. From 2015 to 2018 Doyle also presented BT Sport’s coverage of MotoGP. In the last couple of years, he has also been an occasional host on ITV show This Morning.
Who presents rugby on BT Sport?
BT Sport has a huge amount of coverage for rugby games. Due to that, they have three different main presenters who work specifically on rugby. Those three are Sarra Elgan, Craig Doyle and Martin Bayfield.
Doyle has been with the channel since 2013, focused mainly on rugby. He is a mainstay of the presenting team despite having very limited rugby experience in terms of playing. Doyle’s career has focused on the media instead of trying to play rugby professionally.
Sarra Elgan has been presenting in rugby for over 15 years now, starting out with ESPN presenting the Premiership. He has also done work for S4C and the BBC. But she has not just stuck to rugby, also doing coverage for Speedway as well as the Euro Cup in Portugal in 2004.
Martin Bayfield was the co-presenter of Craig Doyle when the pair were at ITV. He had previously played rugby not long before the game became professional. The 6ft 10in Bayfield played for Northampton and Bedford Blues. Bayfield made 34 appearances for England as well as 3 for the British and Irish Lions.
Who is Martin Bayfield
A lot of people will probably know Martin Bayfield as one of the presenters and pundits for BT Sport’s coverage of rugby. But he also had a rugby career of his own.
Bayfield began playing rugby at school, but considering at the time rugby was not professional, he also served as part of the Metropolitan Police before transferring to Bedfordshire Police.
He began his career with Northampton before finishing his career with Bedford Blues. As a 6ft 10in lock, he got a lot of attention from England. Bayfield made his international debut in 1991 with England. Despite that, he was not included in the England squad for the 1991 Rugby World Cup.
He was however part of the England squad that won the Five Nations Grand Slam in 1992 as well as being part of the England team for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Bayfield formed a formidable partnership with Martin Johnson who would go on to captain England to the World Cup title in 2003.
Bayfield was forced to retire from rugby in 1998 due to a neck injury he sustained in training. After his rugby career, Bayfield moved into presenting, Journalism and appeared in all of the Harry Potter films.
He moved to BT Sport in 2013 when the channel acquired the rights to show Premiership Rugby games.
Who is Sarra Elgan?
Sarra Elgan is one of the presenters of BT Sport’s rugby coverage. Elgan began her entertainment career in 2003 working on Top of the Pops Saturday. Since then she has become one of the most experienced rugby presenters on BT Sport.
Not only has she worked with BT Sport but she has also covered the Premiership for ESPN, as well as covering The British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021. A hugely experienced presenter, Elgan has a brilliant range of presenting.