Editorial Standards and Corrections Policy

Source hierarchy

For dates, fixtures, scores, laws and venue rules we prefer the event organiser, World Rugby, the venue operator and the relevant union or club. A secondary report may add context but does not outrank a primary correction.

Each data-led page displays a source and retrieval time. The primary sources index shows which guides and reports cite each reference. Missing data is shown as unavailable, never inferred from a previous season.

Search spam safeguards

This publication does not sell access to its domain authority, host unrelated third-party sections, create doorway pages for query variations, hide text from readers, cloak content from crawlers or redirect visitors to a different destination than the one described. Paid or affiliate links are not currently used; any future commercial relationship must be visibly labelled and use the appropriate link attribute.

Fixture, result and planning records retain their source and retrieval time. A source feed is not republished as an article. The page must add a clear reader task, season context, source ownership and a route to related guidance. Repeated or thin pages are consolidated into the strongest existing URL.

• No page is created only to capture a keyword, location or query variation.
• No expired domain, subfolder or contributor area is rented for unrelated content.
• No user submission is published without a separate editorial decision.
• Suspicious redirects, hidden content and unexpected outbound links are release-blocking failures.

Corrections

Material corrections are dated on the affected page. Existing URLs are preserved where possible so a correction replaces the error instead of hiding it behind a redirect or deletion.

To report an error, use the editorial contact page and include the page URL, disputed statement and a primary source when available.

Pre-publication quality checks

Before publication, a page must have one clear search intent, a title and H1 that describe the same subject, a self-referencing canonical URL and links that use descriptive anchor text. Claims about dates, scores, laws, access and availability must be traceable to an appropriate source.

We do not publish a page merely because a keyword variation exists. A new route must answer a distinct reader task or add evidence, comparison, structured data or practical functionality that the existing page does not provide.

• Remove duplicate or unsupported claims before publication.
• Keep one H1 and a logical H2 and H3 outline.
• Label illustrative images and write useful alt text.
• Link the page into the relevant event, planning or archive cluster.
• Update an existing URL when that serves the same reader intent.