Whether you agree with the honours system or not, it is a disgrace that the 13-a-side code is overlooked on such a regular basis.

Rugby union, of course, football, bowls, women's soccer and even clay pigeon shooting were all featured in the latest round, but nothing for rugby league.

This column isn't arguing that the latest recipients weren't worthy.

The newly-retired Lawrence Dallaglio had a fine career at a very high level in the 15-a-side code but is he any more a deserving cause than any of rugby league's current batch of top stars?

Take Jamie Peacock as an example. The Leeds Rhinos forward has won every available domestic honour, skippered Great Britain to their first Test series triumph in 14 years last autumn and is the current England captain. Surely he's worthy of at least an MBE.

The modern game has at least its fair share of leading players who haven't got the recognition they deserve, the likes of Keiron Cunningham, Kevin Sinfield and Keith Senior, who have an incredible record of performance and consistency over more than a decade at the highest level.

While it seems you don't have to win very much to get a gong as a rugby union player, footballer or cricketer, there are generations of league aces who have been ignored when it's been time for the Establishment to reward the great and good.

In 1954, Great Britain won the inaugural rugby league World Cup– the first British team to win a World Cup in any sport.

Many of that team are still alive, yet none of them has ever been honoured by the Queen. Surely it's time to put that right, particularly with a World Cup looming this year.

Rugby league has generations of heroes who deserve recognition, legends of the game such as Malcolm Reilly, one of Castleford's greatest sons, who proved himself as a player at the top level in this country and Down Under and did the same as a coach, at both club and international level.

Bev Risman had a wonderful playing career and then was a key figure in founding the student game and developing the sport in London and the south east.

Leeds' John Holmes played the game in three different decades and never got the recognition he deserved as one of the all-time greats.

How about Maurice Bamford, who has given a lifetime to the sport, as player, coach – including a spell in charge of Great Britain – and now a journalist and author?

In the media, love them or hate him, Mike Stephenson has done a great deal to popularise the sport through his work on Sky TV and also set up the Gillette Heritage Centre, at the George Hotel in Huddersfield.