I love rugby and i'm an avid craft beer drinker, so i had an instant click with his videos. About Owens, i agree 100%, and about the analysis part, it depends.
No matter how good the analysis looks on paper, it is not difficult to understand that they cannot talk about things they know absolutely nothing about. Scrums are the perfect example.
I'm tired of hearing commentators who've never played rationalize the most bizarre calls when a second later every former player says "********, that's a coin toss".
There are plenty, actually TONS of anecdotes from props saying the refs have no idea what goes on in the scrum, and props who can read that can milk it.
I am not saying you need to be a former pro player to be a good commentator, but it definitely helps. It is a mental game as much as it is a physical one. You can see what the player does, but it is almost impossible to imagine what the players are going through if you haven't been remotely close yourself.
O'Sullivan's comments this week are another perfect example: after pundits left and right said how the Lions's second test penalty was ok, O'Sullivan asked, if that is the case, what is the defender supposed to do? That little, minute insight apparently escaped nearly all of the people who haven't played yet didn't hesitate to comment.
I watch rugby and footie mostly. I cannot think of a single top tier broadcasting team that hasn't got former players/coaches on it (actually one, back in the 80's in Argentina). The non-players tend to play a more coordinating role and talk about the stats. The truly insightful stuff always comes from the (former) players. Non players are good at communicating what is happening. Former players (if eloquent) can add value by explaining the rationale behind it. They've done the training, they've seen plays, practiced them, played against them, know where the key points are, what could go wrong, etc.
It is nearly impossible to figure that by yourself if you have never played.
Being a former player won't make you a good pundit, but in order to be a great one i'm pretty sure it is a massive advantage.
