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Raise Your Game: It's live television. There are eight million people watching. And somebody says: 'Cue, Eddie ...'

Eddie Butler: I suppose it's just like an exam. There's a bit of adrenalin washing around and you're caught between knowing absolutely that the Irish front row goes Corrigan, Byrne, Hayes, and suddenly wondering whether Hayes is heavier than Malcolm O'Kelly. Confidence and doubt, those old bedfellows ...

You have to prepare in your own way. Some commentators make a lot of notes and prepare a lot of lines. Phrases that will ease them into the action.

I'm not a big note-taker. I can't read my handwriting very well. And the thought of stopping to look for that little-one-liner ... well, I suspect a little pause would become a long stretch of silence ... too long ... where did I jot it down? ... 'Hello, hello. Can somebody check to see if the commentator's still with us?'

But if I don't write a lot down I do try and absorb as much info as possible. You know I said: 'Don't cram.'? Well, I do. On the morning of matches I read just about everything going.

But I don't regard it as last-minute revision. It's more a little ritual. An essential routine. Say we're in Dublin and the kick-off is at 3.00pm. Then at 10.30 I'll set out on a walk that will last three hours and will take in a couple of cafes and a couple of benches down the canal bank. I'll buy all the newspapers and slowly work my way through them. Little bits will stick. Maybe they'll pop up later; maybe not.

Each to his own. There is no set formula for writing an exam answer. As long as the common basics are observed. Don't use flowery words. Don't cut across the co-commentator. Don't swear. Do be careful, and/but do be bold. Remember that old adage about knowing what you can do, and what you can't do. Luck only comes to the people who've prepared well.