Career Record for Featherstone
Appearances			Tries	Goals	Drop Goals	Points
Total	Start	Sub
240	185	55	104	128	3	675

Although born in Featherstone, Chapman's family moved to Dewsbury in the 1970s and it was from Dewsbury Moor that he signed for Sheffield Eagles in 1993 at the age of seventeen. He had limited opportunities there and declined a new three-year contract in 1996. After a brief spell at Dewsbury, he moved to Bordeaux in France to play rugby and after three months was told that David Ward the Rovers coach was interested in signing him. He arrived home the following day and signed! It was no surprise. His mother was a cheerleader for the Rovers in the 1970s and the family's Featherstone roots ran deep.

He made his senior debut v Moldgreen in the RL Cup in January 1997 and he immediately fitted into the Rovers set-up. Although the number 9s in the present game do not have the hooking skills previously required, his lively and individual play, particularly from the acting half-back position, endeared him to Rovers fans. Many considered his skills worthy of display in the Super League and he came so close to that in 1998, when Rovers lost the Division One Grand Final (and, with it, entry into the Super League) to Wakefield 24-22 in controversial circumstances. He gave an outstanding display, playing a major role in Rovers' first two tries and kicked three goals; he was deservedly named Man of the Match. Rovers were beaten in the closing stages after having a try by Karl Pratt disallowed.

Although he was unusually tall for a hooker, Richard’s play-making skills, both handling and kicking, marked him out as one of the top performers at Championship level over a number of seasons. Many of Rovers attacking moves were based around his unorthodox creativity from acting half-back. He also had a penchant for try scoring and an eye for a gap in the defensive line. He had a particularly effective and outrageous dummy, which when used close to the line brought him many tries. In short, a real handful for opposition defences.

Richard’s durability and consistency brought him close to an historic milestone. Never in the history of the club had a hooker scored 100 tries in his Featherstone career. Chapman’s impressive season by season try-scoring returns of 9/18/11/15/19/19/10/3 saw him move towards three figures, more or less at the same time as winger Jamie Stokes also approached his ton. Chapman finally reached that total in July 2003 against Dewsbury, his 213th game for Featherstone. What an achievement.  He is still only one of two forwards (the other being Pete Smith) who have scored over 100 tries for Rovers.  

After eight seasons Richard was prematurely released in 2004 and then gave good service to Dewsbury Rams.  In a return visit Dewsbury had a play right on the Featherstone line, everybody in the ground could see the dummy would come, and it did, and he scored!  In total, he played 240 games for Featherstone Rovers and scored 104 tries as well as 128 goals, kicked mostly in 1998. The sign of any class player is how difficult he is to replace and how well he is remembered, and for Featherstone Rovers replacing Richard Chapman was a tough job, and those who saw him remember him as a true entertainer and character, as well as a damn good player!