Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries confuses rugby league and union in embarrassing speech gaffe

Nadine Dorries - secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sport - confused Rugby league with union. Credit: PA images

Nadine Dorries made an embarrassing mistake during a speech to a rugby league audience by confusing the game with the rugby union.

The Culture Secretary - who has responsibility for sport - was speaking in St Helens at the launch of a report into the social impact made by the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

She opened her address with a reference to Jonny Wilkinson’s iconic match-winning drop goal in the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup.

"I’ve always quite liked the idea of rugby league," she said. "My long-standing memory is that 2003 drop goal.

“I’ll let you into a secret. I think we were drinking Bloody Mary’s at the time. It was 11 o’clock in the morning but wow what a moment that was.”

Dorries - who is the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport - has since attempted to make up for her embarrassing mistake on Twitter.

She said: “Like Jason Robinson I may have switched codes in my speech… Both league & union have a rich heritage in the UK.

“Obviously I’ve followed rugby league much less in my lifetime, but I’m looking forward to watching England (& all the home nations) in the RL World Cup this Autumn.”

Rugby Football League chief executive Ralph Rimmer did not criticise Dorries for her mistake, preferring to thank the Government for its £25million backing.

“I’m not going to dwell on that,” Rimmer said. “It’s brilliant that she’s here and we’ve had fantastic support from the Government. I’m not going to knock the shine off any of that.

“She gets a chance to see us as we really are and good on her for coming up.”

World Cup chief executive Jon Dutton said he would be inviting Dorries back to attend the matches “to see for herself what a wonderful sport rugby league is”.

“We’re delighted that she came,” Dutton said. “We’re delighted that the Government has shown such a massive commitment to investing into the tournament and its social impact programme.

“My final words to the Secretary of State were that we would be delighted if she were to come back to the tournament, maybe to attend each of the three disciplines and see for herself what a wonderful sport rugby league is.”


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