Nadine Dorries compares herself to Wigan legend after embarrassing rugby mix up

Nadine Dorries made a huge faux pas at a rugby league event this week, when she mixed up two different codes in the sport.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was at a Rugby League World Cup social impact event in St Helens, during which she confused league and union while giving a speech.

When discussing her favourite moment from rugby league, she mistakenly chose Jonny Wilkinson’s famous drop-goal – which led to England winning the 2003 rugby union World Cup – as her standout memory.

Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street / Flickr

Dorries told the audience: “I’ve always quite liked the idea of rugby league. My long standing memory is that 2003 drop-goal.

“I’ll let you into a secret, we were drinking Bloody Marys at the time, it was 11 o’clock in the morning, but wow, what a moment that was.

“I know from my limited watching that it’s an incredibly physical and sometimes brutal sport and it often ends up in a scrum, which actually reminds me very much of politics.

“I think we have a lot in common and given a lot of the media like to call me the prime minister’s attack dog, I wonder sometimes if I should give rugby a go.”

While rugby league is played across the country, it is most popular in Northern England –  especially Lancashire and Yorkshire where the game originated in the late 1800s.

She later addressed the mistake on Twitter, in a tweet in which she compared herself to a Wigan rugby league legend.

She wrote: “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.”