Super League club hit out at RFL over IMG gradings

The first ever IMG grades have been released with Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, Hull FC and others gaining Grade A status.

But there was a problem for Castleford Tigers who were awarded a Grade B but left out of the top 12 places after an error was made which cost them half a point and their place in the top 12 spaces with Leigh Leopards finishing 12th instead of them.

This led to a statement from the Tigers the morning of the IMG grades’ release. The RFL acknowledged the situation themselves but even then the Tigers are still not happy with the RFL’s actions.

Mark Grattan said on the COYF podcast: “I think the statement from the RFL this morning was really poor. I think the statement didn’t mention they had made a mistake and that we were actually set at 11th up until the phone call at 7.30 last night, I think it just says that we’ve submitted some data after the deadline, which I suppose factually is correct, but we’ve submitted all the information and the documentation in.

“Fully accept and apologise, I made that mistake with the data line. I’m trying to rectify it. You know, our true score is 12.91, so if you look at that where it’s on the grid, I think it’s 11. Obviously with the work we’ve got planned in that year, we’ve actually looked quite promising for us.

“Yeah, and it was one of the points I raised, it’s the biggest thing to happen to a group of league. We accept that you’ve made an error, you should accept that we’ve also made an error. And if you’re an error in our department, I was a bit spooked, but the sensible thing to do is either to just correct it or to just sit and wait.

“It’s not like we were… It’s the positions that’s the problem because 13th position effectively people see that as not being super equal. So that’s the issue. I don’t know why it made any difference to them to… I don’t know what difference it would have made to them to correct it last time, we got the correct one in after they’d taken the half point out. I just don’t understand that. So that’s where we’re at. So there’s an appealing, whether they hear it, whether they do it, that’s entirely up to them.”