I thought I had posted this in the past and I can't find it anymore, but nothing seems to have changed as a result. I suggest that match reports list players by their most common names.
Mal Meninga displaying as his full first name, Malcolm Meninga, is one thing, but for a player that is most commonly known by a nickname or "stage name", such as Iulio "Bunty" Afoa, Erevonu "Tui" Kamikamica, or even Joel Luani, whose real name is Haveatama Halafungani, they aren't going to be easily recognised on match reports if their birth name is displayed.
Job for Shawn
We've done some adjustments to the match pages to display the player's title, instead of the "proper" first name and last name. This means for now we're not utilitising the display format whereby the surname is shown in uppercase, so feedback is welcome.
There's still a few places where players still get listed by their full name, but it's awesome to see the changes to match pages. I don't think the uppercase surnames is a big loss.
Players with brackets after their name now display with the brackets, however. Partial list: Andy Walker (HS), J Wilson (E), Matt Ryan (PE), Michael Brown (H), V Marsh (SD), J Walsh (SC), John Brown (NZ), William Kelly (NZ), T Ryan (NZ), ? Smith (NZ), A Smith (ND), Andrew Smith (T), C Smith (W), C Smith (I), C Smith (H), F Smith (ND), G Smith (NC), Greg Smith (B), Greg Smith (P), H Smith (CQ), Jamie Smith (P), M Smith (WD), Mark Smith (C), Nathan Smith (P), T Smith (L), T Smith (NF), W Smith (Q), W Smith (Ne), ? Turner (W), George Turner (NZ), Scott Turner (O), Craig Barker (F), Chris Young (BR).