Nick Mullins (born 31 January 1966) is a British journalist and sports commentator, primarily working on

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

coverage and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

coverage.

Early life

Mullins began his career as a journalist with the ''Loughborough Trader'' and '' Loughborough Echo''.

Commentary career

Mullins joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 1985 and moved to BBC Radio Sport in 1991. He was part of the ''

Rugby Special ''Rugby Special'' was the main rugby union highlights programme on the BBC in the UK. The show ran from 1966 and past presenters included David Vine, Keith Macklin, Cliff Morgan, Chris Rea (rugby union), Chris Rea, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Bill Beaum ...

'' team and covered

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

, Premiership,

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

and

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

rugby matches for the BBC. He also commentated at

for Radio 5 Live. He has commentated at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

since

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. In 2010 Mullins left the BBC to commentate on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's rugby coverage. Mullins was also ITV Sport's chief commentator at the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

in New Zealand and

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

, where he commentated on the final with Ben Kay and

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972) is an English retired rugby union player. He is a former captain of England, and a 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Dallaglio played as a flanker or number eight for London ...

. In 2013, Mullins moved to BT Sport following their acquisition of the Premiership Rugby rights and their subsequent takeover of ESPN. He has also provided commentary from the French Open Tennis for ITV Sport, and the University Boat Race. He is part of the BBC Commentary team for

Controversy

Mullins was criticized by players and fans alike for a comment he made during the opening match of the

. Commentating for ITV, he referred to Fijian fans "back in Fiji around one TV hoping the generator doesn't fail them." Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo voiced his displeasure at the remarks following the match on Twitter.

Writing

As well as commentating, Mullins has contributed to

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

s from some of the events he has commentated at, including the Olympic Games and

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

. He is also a columnist for ESPN Scrum.com.

Personal life

Mullins is a supporter of Leicester City. He was previously married to Radio 5 Live presenter

Eleanor Oldroyd Eleanor Oldroyd (born in Bury, Lancashire, 2 June 1962) is a British people, British sports broadcaster with BBC Radio. Early life Oldroyd was educated at Oxford High School, Oxford, Oxford High School and Girton College at Cambridge University. ...

, and they have two children. In 2016, Mullins married Melissa Platt. Platt was a reporter for Sky Sports and the Head of Communications for the now defunct Wasps Rugby Club she is currently the Head of Media for the Rugby Players' Association (RPA).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullins, Nick English rugby union commentators Living people 1966 births BBC sports presenters and reporters BT Sport presenters and reporters