Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Rugby league in England/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted 03:35, 30 December 2007.

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Rugby league in England

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I'm nominating this article for featured article because... I think it fufills the criteria. It has already passed "Good Status". It has not previously been nominated.GordyB (talk) 18:42, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose It's a nice article, but to pass FA, as a very minimum every major claim in the article must be verified with a reliable source. I've tagged a couple of such claims, but really the article's littered with them. --Dweller (talk) 08:37, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

I'll get onto it as soon as I can.10:26, 25 December 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by GordyB (talk • contribs)

• Oppose: like Dweller--Brískelly 08:58, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

I've been adding references to the article. Are there any other issues with the article or is this the only thing preventing FAS?GordyB (talk) 17:54, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Despite the additional citations, there are still great swathes of uncited material in the article. Have a look at some recently passed FA quality material to see the extent to which FAs are cited... I have a candidate article here myself - see Sid Barnes. --Dweller (talk) 19:44, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose This article is far from FA:
• Referencing is not FA standard.
  • Paragraphs 3 and 4 of "Post war" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 1, 3 and 5 of "Eighties and onwards" section are unreferenced.
  • Only 1 reference in "Governing bodies" section.
  • No references in "Competitions" section.
  • No references in "Derbies" section.
  • Paragraphs 2, 4 and 5 of "Junior rugby league" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of "Student Rugby League" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 1 and 2 of "Other forms of rugby league" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 2, 4 and 6 of "Popularity" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 1, 2 and 5 of "Current trends" section are unreferenced.
  • Paragraphs 1 and 5 of "Rugby league and race" section are unreferenced.
  • No references in "Radio" section.  Done added BBC regional radio refs •Florrie•leave a note• 08:57, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
  • No references in "Cinema" section.
  • No references in "National teams" section.
• The article is not well written. It has too many short paragraphs with only one or two sentences. For example:
  • "The Northern Union made reforms to the laws in 1897 and again in 1906 in an effort make the game more exciting. This resulted in Northern Union football becoming a sport in its own right rather than a form of rugby union."
  • "The Challenge Cup began in 1897 with Batley beating St Helens to win the first title. The final was first broadcast by BBC radio in 1927. The Wemberley tradition was started in 1929 when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13-2 at the first Challenge Cup to be held at Wembley."
  • "During the Second World War professional rugby league was again discontinued, normal leagues were suspended, a War Emergency League was established, with clubs playing separate Yorkshire and Lancashire sections to reduce the need for travel."
  • "Attendances fell even further in the 1970s. Britain won the Ashes for the last time in 1970 with a 2-1 series win in Australia."
  • "Universities and Colleges Rugby League in 1969 and the British Amateur Rugby League Association in 1973 responded to the need to develop the game below professional level."
  • "The 1982 Kangaroos won all their tour games for first time ever, they became known as 'The Invincibles'. This was the time when the gap between English and Australian rugby league became apparent and has never been fully closed."
  • "The All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group was formed in 1987 to support the sport of rugby league and tackle the key issues facing the game in Parliament. Ian McCartney MP was the first chairman and David Hinchliffe MP the secretary."
  • "In the mid eighties Wigan began an era of domination of English rugby league that would end only with the formation of Super League. By 1995 they had won the Challenge Cup a record eighth consecutive times and the league title for a record seventh consecutive times."
  • "Touch rugby is governed by the ETA who are supported by the Federation of International Touch and are affiliate members of the Rugby Football Union. They are not affiliated to the RFL or BARLA."
  • "The winner of the Super League plays the winner of the Australian NRL competition in the World Club Challenge."
  • "At various times English clubs have either competed in a national Championship with a Second Division and sometimes a Third Division as well or had separate county leagues for Yorkshire and Lancashire."
  • "There were also county cups for Yorkshire and Lancashire between 1905 and 1993. The Regal Trophy and BBC2 Floodlit Trophy were two other knock-out tournaments. A Trans-Pennine Cup was played for a short-time but it was replaced by the National League Cup."
  • "The Rugby League Charity Shield was a one-off match at the beginning of each season between 1985 and 1995. It was contested by the Champions and the holders of the Challenge Cup."
  • "Some of the teams involved no longer play in the same league and so derby games are either arranged as pre-season friendlies or take place as part of the National League Cup."
  • "BARLA runs the Halifax Home Insurance National Youth League as well as the Yorkshire combination, Hull Youth and Junior and London Youth League."
  • "Though the game remains close to its working-class origins, changes in social demographics and attitudes have allowed many working class people to attend university where they have continued their association with the game."
  • "The Student Rugby League was founded in 1967 when a team was created at Leeds University by Andrew Cudbertson, Jack Abernathy and Cec Thompson, other teams soon joined in areas of the United Kingdom which lay outside of the games traditional heartlands."
  • "Rugby league sevens is particularly popular with pub teams drawn from the regulars at a pub, the reason for this is that it is often difficult for a single pub to form a full squad of 13 players and four substitutes."
  • "Wheelchair rugby league was first played in England in July 2007. There are no competitive leagues or regular fixtures established as yet."
  • "Although attendances outside Super League can be quite low, many of the teams play in small towns and the attendance figures represent a large percentage of the local population."
  • "The success of Super League in England and the return of competitive international matches with Australia and New Zealand have seen growth for the sport."
  • "The annual Powergen Schools Cup competition from 2003 onwards has increased the number of school teams from 300 to 1,500 and the participation levels to 25,000 from 6,000. Though these figures include participants from Wales."
  • "Whilst rugby union was officially an amateur sport, many rugby union players came to play rugby league. In recent years this trend has reversed and some rugby league players have crossed codes to play union."
  • "George Bennet became the first black player to play for Great Britain, Association football took another 44 years before Viv Anderson became the first black footballer to play for England."
  • "Clive Sullivan became the first black captain of Great Britain team in 1972, 21 years before Paul Ince became the first black captain of England's soccer team."
  • "The Great Britain side are also referred to as "the Lions" or "the British Lions". At international level the Women's Great Britain side is commonly referred to as the Great Britain Lionesses."
  • "England has historically provided the vast majority of players for the Great Britain team, one of the major national teams playing rugby league. They compete against Australia for The Ashes, and New Zealand for the Baskerville Shield."
  • "Great Britain also played in the 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2006 Tri-Nations against New Zealand and Australia. Although Great Britain never won the Tri- Nations, they finished top of the table in 2005 but lost to Australia in the final."
  • "In 2007 Great Britain will be replaced by separate England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales teams, there after, Great Britain will only play on special occasions and tours."
• References 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 27, 30, 31, 32 and 33 have formatting problems. References always go after a comma or full stop with no spaces in between and a space after the reference. : Done •Florrie•leave a note• 08:13, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
• I think you should just give up making this an FA. --Kaypoh (talk) 05:28, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

  I agree it won't make FA this time round (there's too much to do)and Kaypoh's detailed critique will help you, but Florrie, I'll tweak the "give up" advice. It's not a million miles off FA quality. Ask Raul to close this nom, work up the article, ask the RL WikiProject to help you improve it and take it back to Peer Review before coming back here. Just my 2p. Whatever you do, good luck. --Dweller (talk) 09:30, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

That's up to Gordy as it's his nom (and baby). I was just doing some drive-by editing to help out :) But I agree, an FA isn't out of reach in the future. •Florrie•leave a note• 09:50, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

However, the page isn't ready to the FA-page. --Brískelly 16:51, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.