Craig Doyle

When he’s not on the fish and chip run for the local priest or beating Brian O’Driscoll at golf, Craig Doyle is anchoring TNT’s rugby coverage, something he doesn’t take for granted.

I played rugby all my life, very badly. I was skinny, eight stone something when I was wet. But I really loved it. The hero of my day was Tony Ward, he was a phenomenal rugby player – I’m actually playing golf with him on Friday.

I was at Blackrock from the age of six, until I was eighteen. The guys I met at six years old are still my friends today. Niall Woods, Shane Byrne, Victor Costello. It was a good rugby year. There were also a lot of very successful businessmen and politicians… And Father Dougal from Father Ted, he was a couple years ahead of me.

I used to do the fish and chip run for a priest called Father Devine. I was in my final year of boarding school. He used to think I was a really good kid, very helpful. But what he didn’t know was that while I was getting him his fish and chips, I was meeting up with a girl. Myself and a mate used to run to the village, meet these two girls, get a couple pints, pick up the fish and chips and drop them back to him. He’d always be asleep, so we knew we could stay out for a few hours. After months of doing this, he called me into his office and said, ‘we’ve had a chat, myself and the priests and we feel you might have been called to the priesthood’. I said, ‘hmm, no, I don’t think so’. I avoided priests for the rest of my life.

When I was a kid, I would go along to Leinster games. It wasn’t like it is now. Even Brian O’Driscoll will tell you when he started playing, there were 2000 people in Donnybrook, not the full Aviva Stadium you get these days.

Brian has been a good friend for a few years now, but he doesn’t look younger than me, let’s be honest. There are quite a few years between us. I may have beaten him up at school, he would have been a lot younger. Now we have our production company together, we speak most days. He’s a good lad.

I love golf. I’ve played since I was little, but I can’t putt for toffee. I can hit the ball miles, but I cannot putt. The lads love it. There is a beautiful course we played recently in Dunleary. I drove to the par fours and still bogied both of them, that’s how bad my putting is. It’s a disaster. The lads think it’s the funniest thing. I’m determined to get to single figure this summer.

The last time I played, myself and Niall Woods went up against Brian and Rob Kearney. We beat them on the 18th, and it was beautiful. They had to buy lunch, which they didn’t like. They don’t like losing at all.

I wanted to be in the army, then I wanted to be a vet, then I decided I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. At fourteen, I told my careers person I wanted to present Grandstand on BBC One and they laughed at me. They said I was being ridiculous. So, when I finally did present it years later, I did so with a big grin on my face. Never tell me I can’t do something.

I did about a year on a kids show called Disney Club. The money was four times what I was earning before, and it was a fifth of the days. It was weird, but I always say to people you just need to get in somewhere. It doesn’t matter what it is you’re doing – once you’re in the room, other things will come of it if you work hard. So, while I was doing that, I met the director of Tomorrow’s World, which was a science technology show on BBC One. I worked on that for three years. I used to do bits of rugby when I could, and they all knew I loved sport. So, Grandstand came and approached me, and the sports side of things grew from there.

One of the first things I did with the BBC was the British Superbike Championship. That is so tough, it’s brutal. I loved it. Then the TT came off the back of that. The death was hard to take. There would be two to three deaths a year. The more you do it, the more you get to know people, and then the people you know start dying. So, it got to the stage where I’d had enough of seeing it. I know the danger is an integral part of it, but it was hard to take.

I ride a very small motorbike, a 1969 Vesper 150 Baloche. I have done the TT course in a car but couldn’t ever do it on a bike, it scares me too much.

Working for BT has been huge, it’s the first time I’ve been the main anchor. Before, I was always behind people – Steve Ryder, John Inverdale or Sue Barker. So, to be main anchor was a cool moment. I was there from day one, hosting the opening of the channel. You don’t get to do that in your lifetime very often, launch a channel.

The coverage grew organically, there was no masterplan. I’ve known Lawrence Dallaglio for twenty years, Bayfes (Martin Bayfield) fifteen years, Austen, Nick Mullins, the whole team have known each other for years. The friendship thing is important. It helps – we’re like a weird dysfunctional family.

A landmark moment in my career was interviewing Tiger Woods. I did the interview, and someone said to me ‘that’s the best interview I’ve ever heard with Tiger’. He was amazing. A lovely, interesting, impressive, engaging person – I really liked him.

TV has given me some great opportunities. I played a soccer match in front of a full Old Trafford. 74,000 people there and millions watching back home. Playing with the likes of Maradonna, Gianfranco Zola, Dunga and Schmeichel. It was surreal. It was an England Versus Rest of The World match. In the dressing room before the game, Alistair Campbell took out a set of bagpipes and you had Maradona and Zola on the physio table doing the highland fling.

I noticed how tired you get, being out there in front of thousands of people. Maradona was there, flicking it around doing keepie-ups, then they pass it to me, and I couldn’t even move my legs. I was responsible for both the goals we let in, but it was a heck of an experience. I took a moment to look around the stands, and it was just unbelievable. I also noticed how you block out the crowd. Sometimes, when you’re on the ball or tracking someone, it’s like there’s no one else in the stadium. Then in the quiet moments, you can hear a guy in row Z calling your name.

I raced for Ireland in the Triathlon World Championships in Hamburg. I was covering the sport and I didn’t know much about it, so I decided to join a club. It was the best way to learn. I run like a duck, I’m not very athletic but the club were going to the World Championships and everyone at the BBC said, ‘I bet you won’t make the team’.  To do so, you have to be in the top 10% in your age group in the country over five races, so I just started racing properly that year. I made the Irish team. I think I finished 90th, I was shite. But it was a great experience.

There have been some strange moments when I’ve been on air. One year, I was interviewing Thomas Castagnède from the changing rooms and a couple of the players had dropped their towels. It was the final day of the Six Nations, Wales versus France. I look over his shoulder, and they’re just stood there with their nobs hanging out. Probably six to eight million people watching it live, and I’m just looking at these guys’ penises. I said, ‘I’m very sorry to those watching at home, probably some French cockerel you didn’t expect to see on a Saturday afternoon – back to you, John.’