An open letter to Nigel Wood

To Nigel Wood (Rugby League Chief Executive)

Dear Nigel

There are very few of us who do not lament the amount of attention our sport gets from the media. As someone interested in Rugby League statistics I am painfully aware of how difficult it is to find reliable data either in the press (Rugby League Express excepted) or for that matter on the web.

It is, therefore, really galling when you go to the RFLs own website and find links that take you to what can only be described as utter garbage. I have been aware of this for some time but on Sunday night I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I had been to the Bradford Bulls v Featherstone Rovers and was unsure about the scorer of one of the tries. When I got home I clicked on my link to the RFL website which then provides links to Championship Results and ‘Report/Stats’.

Here is what I found with the team listings and my comments about them.

Bradford Bulls:

FB	Brandon Pickersgill
W	Ross Oakes	WRONG - played at Centre
C	James Mendeika
C	Iliess Macani	WRONG - played on the Wing
W	Oscar Thomas	WRONG - played at Stand off
SO	Jordan Lilley	WRONG - played at Scrum Half
SH	Jon Magrin	WRONG - played at Loose Forward
P	Scott Moore	WRONG - played at Hooker
H	Liam Kirk	WRONG - played at Prop
P	James Bentley	WRONG - played at Second Row
2R	Colton Roche
2R	Ross Peltier	WRONG - on the bench
LF	Sam Hallas
Sub	James Davies
Sub	Brandan Wilkinson
Sub	Omari Caro	WRONG - started on the Wing
Sub	Vila Halafihi

Featherstone Rovers:

FB	James Duckworth	WRONG - played on the Wing
W	Jason Walton	WRONG - didn't play!
C	Kyran Johnson	WRONG - played on the Wing
C	Misi Taulapapa
W	Anthony Thackeray	WRONG - played at Stand off
SO	Matty Wildie	WRONG - played at Scrum Half
SH	Richard Moore	WRONG - played at Loose Forward
P	Keal Carlile	WRONG - played at Hooker
H	Jordan Baldwinson	WRONG - played at Prop
P	Michael Knowles	WRONG - played at Second Row
2R	John Davies
2R	James Lockwood
LF	Kyle Briggs	WRONG - on the bench
Sub	Frankie Mariano
Sub	Darrell Griffin
Sub	Jack Ormondroyd
Sub	Josh Hardcastle	WRONG - started at Centre

Even more laughable is the attempt to add photos to some of the names. Of the 34 names listed they only seem able to find photos for 8 of the players. Of those 8, only two of them are correct and wearing the right kit. For Bradford Bulls, Scott Moore is shown wearing a Castleford Shirt, and then for James Davies they have a player wearing a Sheffield Eagles shirt - but it isn’t James Davies but John Davies who was playing for Featherstone!!! What’s more, John Davies is in his second season with Fev so you would have thought they could have got the correct kit by now. Turning to the Featherstone photos, Michael Knowles is represented by a picture of a player in a Saint Helens shirt - it’s Morgan Knowles. James Duckworth has a photo that is him but wearing a London Broncos shirt (a team he made just three appearances for, three years ago) and Richard Moore and Jason Walton are shown in Wakefield Trinity shirts.

We all make mistakes! Players make mistakes, officials make mistakes, and reporters make mistakes. But no-one who has any knowledge of rugby league would list Richard Moore at scrum-half or Scott Moore at Prop. Nor would they put Anthony Thackeray on the wing or Jon Magrin at scrum-half!

I don’t know who is doing these reports on behalf of the RFL but the fact that they are willing to put this balderdash up with links to the governing body of the sport shows how out of control the administration of rugby league has become.

Since finding the rubbish in this particular report I have looked further and there are very few of these reports that are in any way reliable.

Rugby League Express is to be praised for publishing corrections each week. Considering how many matches are covered it is commendable that so few errors occur. But if the reports in the paper were like the ones on the RFL website then there would probably end up being more pages of corrections than actual reports!

Hoping that something might be done about this slur on our wonderful sport.

Yours sincerely

‘fevnut’