Wales Rugby League have today officially launched www.rugbyleague.wales, their new online home for Wales international rugby league stats.

The brainchild of Ian Golden, the head of media at Wales Rugby League, he is providing the data through his company “Sporting Records Online Ltd” who are the official data partners for top level rugby union clubs like Wasps, Northampton Saints, Dragons and Scarlets. His company is officially linked to “Sportradar” who are the official compliance partners of the Rugby Football League.

This is SRO’s first partnership with a rugby league organisation despite Golden being a rugby league fan for over 30 years, and he is delighted to have launched this website today.

He said: “Compiling this database of Wales Rugby League players and matches has been a personal project of mine and one that I’ve been working on for many years in one form or another. There are over 500 match records and nearly 2,000 player records and that’s a lot of data!

“It’s my ambition to have a complete online archive of every Wales Rugby League international player and match online and whilst this still may be some way off, there’s still plenty of information on www.rugbyleague.wales with a full collection of players and tests for the Wales men’s and wheelchair sides.

“I believe that it’s very important for match and player data to be on show for the general public. I believe this website is the first of its kind in international rugby league, one that features one nation at all levels. I would welcome the opportunity to build sites like this for other clubs or nations. I already have a full record of Super League, the Rugby League World Cup and Rugby League European Championship on my systems.

“A big thank you to all who have assisted me with this. I hope all fans enjoying trawling through the website and I would also welcome any additions and feedback that anyone may have.”

Since February 2011, Wales Rugby League’s official data was on the “Rugby League Project” website, and whilst this official status has now ended, both parties are keen to continue the link.

Golden adds: “I set up and helped to build the partnership with Rugby League Project ahead of the 2011 Four Nations so everyone at WRL is really grateful for the work they’ve done for us over the past eight years. I’ve spoken to Andrew Ferguson at Rugby League Project and they’re keen to continue a link in some form so we’re delighted to announce that WRL, SRO and Rugby League Project will now be official data advisors to each other. We look forward to helping each other out with data and stats wherever possible.”

WRL chairman Brian Juliff, said: “The Board at Wales Rugby League are very proud to officially launch what we believe is the biggest international single nation Rugby League database on the World Wide Web.

“We are grateful for the extensive research, detailing and tenacity of our historian and head of media, Ian Golden. Ian has steadfastly approached this project with his usual enthusiasm and passion to deliver a database of fixtures, results and player information at all levels of the game in Wales since 1991; with even more to come.

“This has been a personal ambition of Ian’s with the purpose not only to list and remember our capped players but also to capture the pathway development from age-grade, community and students through to senior selection and you can see lists like this on the new website to show exactly who has progressed in this way.

“The project is an extensive and continuous piece of work that is user friendly, very informative and interesting. Cymru Am Byth.”

In addition to the comprehensive match and player data on www.rugbyleague.wales, there are many match reports and photographs, team photographs, YouTube videos of Wales matches, complete or highlights and league tables for competitions Wales have competed in.

There are over 400 player profile photos from the Wales Men’s national side, plus all photos from the every current Wales squad including Wheelchair, U19, U16 and Students with Dragonhearts and Women’s to follow when their season begins. Player profile photographs from the past in all but the Men’s and Wheelchair sides have not yet been research so players from these sides are welcome to send head and shoulders shots of themselves via email for inclusion on the website.

The data on the website includes…

• Wales Men’s – we have all matches, scorelines and scorers for every game here, including non-capped matches against club and non-international sides like St Helens, Keighley Cougars and New Zealand Maori. We have every line-up for Wales, and their opposition, for every test match, every Wales captain for every game, all referees, stadia and attendances. Match reports and scorer times are included from 1991 onwards. Thanks to all who have contributed the photographs.
• Wales Women’s – this side launches in October 2019 so we be 100% complete for this side.
• Wales Wheelchair – with this side launching in 2012, we will soon be 100% complete in regards to all Wales player data. We are only missing a couple of scorers from two matches in 2016 right now.
• Wales Dragonhearts and Age-Grade – every match and scoreline is available on this site. We are missing a few team line-ups and scorers in a minority of the matches so stats may not be complete. Most match reports are included. For convenience sake, U18 data has been included within U19.
• Wales Students – just test matches, primarily World Cup and Four / Home Nations, are included at this time. This section is missing the most data especially with team line-ups and scorers, but every effort has been made to include as many competition squad members as possible in the player section. All World Cups are complete from 2005 onwards and Four Nations from 2012 onwards.

To send any enquiries, updates or player profile photographs, please email ian.golden@walesrugbyleague.co.uk.