View from the Sofa: Ground Control to Major Tim, rugby’s new era is simply out of this world

Six Nations, Super League; BBC1, Sky Sports 2

Tim Peake poses in his England shirt ahead of the Six Nations opener against Scotland (Tim Peake)

What a strange world we live in. One where Leicester City can top the richest football league on the planet. One where the Olympics are at risk over a mysterious, head-shrinking, mosquito-borne disease. One where astronauts introduce rugby union tournaments.

Yes, the BBC’s first broadcast of England’s rugby union team since the World Cup began with an uncannily clear image of Major Tim Peake, hurtling around the world on the International Space Station. And the Briton, sporting a straight-out-of-the-packet England shirt, immediately confirmed that he is a better astronaut than a television presenter.

“I have the shirt... there is probably a... set of bagpipes somewhere around here...” he said, before adding in true, impartial BBC tradition: “May the best team win.”

It was fitting for a new era in egg-chasing. We even had a new talking head for John Inverdale to spar with in Mike Tindall, the former centre who won the World Cup with England. And as his opening words came tumbling out of his mouth too quickly for his brain to form into intelligible sentences, we wistfully thought of ITV and their line-up of pundits, which includes the erudite trio of Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O’Driscoll and Ian McGeechan.

Tindall calmed down relatively quickly, apart from the odd eye-roll which drew attention to every slip of the tongue, and was candid in his views – pouring cold water on England’s brave new world under the Australian Eddie Jones by reminding everyone that he had endured “some bad times here... Scotland are tough to beat”.

Jones’ interview with Sonja McLaughlin rammed home that this is a new dawn – you wouldn’t have had his predecessors as head coach Stuart Lancaster, Martin Johnson or Brian Ashton drawl their pleasure at “driving here in the bus and having the Scottish supporters giving you a bit of stick”.

At least we could be comforted by the familiar, dulcet tones of Sky’s rugby league commentary team, exhumed from their brief winter slumber for the new season, which began with Leeds against Warrington. And it was business as usual – as familiar as a post-match pint of mixed – and with the hallmarks of that bygone era when people drank pints of mixed.

Commentator Eddie Hemmings convinced us with the use of a single definite article that he has no truck with such new-fangled things as computers or electricity. “He’s on the Twitter,” he said of one of the Leeds players.

The freshly retired Jamie Peacock, roped in for summarising duties, carried on the tradition started by the soon-to-be retired Mike “Stevo” Stephenson of shouting about how bloody great everything was. “What a pass!” he barked before Chris Sandow’s try. “What an amazing kick!” he yelled as Ben Currie’s boot set up Kevin Penny’s score. “What an incredible hotpot – and this tea is the best in the world!” he may have shouted about the half-time refreshments.

It was just how we remembered Super League coverage from last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that. They know it doesn’t need revamping. Even in this weird world we live in. You certainly wouldn’t need an astronaut to tell you to watch it.