Sawt Falasteen - Balls up: UK govt sports supremo mixes up rugby codes

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Nadine Dorries was addressing an audience in St Helens, near her native Merseyside in northwest England's heartland for rugby league.

"I've always quite liked the idea of rugby league," she said at the launch of a report into the social impact of the upcoming Rugby League World Cup in England.

"My long-standing memory is that 2003 drop goal," Dorries added.

"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."

Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal won the 2003 World Cup for England in the dying seconds of the final against Australia, in Sydney.

But it was rugby union, not league.

Dorries half-apologised later on Twitter, recalling a player who represented England in both the main forms of rugby.

"Like Jason Robinson I may have switched codes in my speech," she said, admitting "I've followed rugby league much less in my lifetime" but lauding the "rich heritage" of both codes.

- Gaffes -

It is not the first time that Dorries, who has a sideline in writing best-selling novels, has raised eyebrows in public.

A self-styled anti-elitist, she has often bashed the BBC, and one of her legislative priorities is to privatise the commercial broadcaster Channel 4.

While state-owned, the edgy channel is funded by advertising revenue.

But in November, Dorries claimed to a committee of MPs that it was "in receipt of public funds", and squirmed when her error was pointed out.

She has been often wheeled out by Downing Street to defend Johnson when other ministers have appeared to quail at the task, especially over the "Partygate" scandal concerning lockdown-breaking revels.

Her promotion to the cabinet by Johnson in September shocked many observers given her propensity for gaffes and chequered political career.

She was suspended as a Conservative MP after going to Australia in 2012 to appear on the hit TV show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!", during which she ate an ostrich's anus as part of a challenge.

But Dorries revels in her reputation, saying she knew rugby league to be "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."

C.Hamad--SF-PST