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BBC explain strange subtitling error relating to Nigel Owens' sexuality

Nigel Owens came in for some criticism at the weekend from English fans aggrieved by the Welsh man’s decision making during their clash with Scotland at Murrayfield.

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Namely his decision to yellow card Sam Underhill and disallow two potential English tries.

Away from the pitch Owens also managed to make the headlines through a rather unusual BBC subtitling error.

According to Wales Online, while in the process of carding Underhill the subtitle initially read:

‘Yellow card. Nigel Owens is a gay penalty and yellow card.’

Which was quickly corrected to  ‘Nigel Owens is saying penalty and yellow card’.

In an attempt to clarify how such a blunder occurred a BBC spokesperson said:

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“Our live subtitling service produces accuracy levels in excess of 98% but, as with all broadcasters, there are instances – particularly during live broadcasts – when mistakes happen.”

“On this occasion the voice recognition subtitling software made an error which was spotted and corrected immediately.”

Naturally, Twitter was quick to pick up on the blunder, with a flood of tweets from bewildered viewers.

https://twitter.com/_ChloeStead/status/967464600915644417

https://twitter.com/Nathanbrown995/status/967478712651452416

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fl 2 hours ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Smith generally isn't well connected to his forward pods; doesn't do a great job of distributing to those around him; and has inferior positional and contestable kicking games than Ford and Fin.


When England have had success over the past few years, its been either through (i) defensive rugby backed up with smart tactical kicking or (ii) high possession attacking phase play based on quick ruck ball. George Ford was key to the implementation of (i) in the RWC, and in the 6N win over Wales, and to the implementation of (ii) in the 6N games against Ireland and France. Smith did great at (ii) when running at tired defenders at the end of the Ireland match, but has never successfully implemented that gameplan from the start of a test because he doesn't distribute or support his forwards enough to create consistent fast ball and build attacks over multiple phases. Instead, his introduction to the starting side has resulted in much more playmaking responsibilities being forced onto whoever plays 9. Alex Mitchell copes ok with that, but I think he looks better with a more involved playmaking 10 outside him, and it really isn't a gameplan that works for JVP or Spencer. As a result of that the outside backs and centres have barely touched the ball when Smith has been at 10.


This might not have been too much of a disaster, as England have seemed to be moving slightly towards the sort of attacking gameplan that France played under Labit and Quins play (I think this was especially their approach when they won the league a few years ago - but its still a part of their play now), which is based on kicking to create broken field rugby. This is (i) a sharp departure from the gameplans that have worked for England in the past few seasons; (ii) bears very little relation to the tactical approaches of the non-Quins players in the England team; and (iii) is an absolute disaster for the blitz defence, which is weak in transition. Unsurprisingly, it has coincided with a sharp decline in England's results.

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