Is playing rugby worth the risks?
WELL done, Boris, for telling it like it is (Mail). There would be far fewer teenage deaths from knife crime if team games such as rugby were played in more towns.
At my Staffordshire grammar school, we had two ex-Army teachers/sadists in charge of our rugger games. If you dropped the ball, the game stopped, you bent down and the nearest sadist gave you a painful kick up the backside. Totally illegal now, but back then it just made you a better rugby player. Eliminate all risk and we die!
peter leWiS, Wigan, lancs. COnGRATULATIOnS to Boris Johnson for his robust defence against the snowflake brigade who want rugby banned from schools on grounds that it is ‘child abuse’.
It seems anything that may be character-forming or require a degree of discipline is to be cast out by the buffoons who have already banned any sanction in homes, schools and the justice system against bad, and indeed criminal, behaviour.
God help this country if we ever have to defend ourselves against any foe bigger than Toyland.
Mike o’hara, Birchington, kent. WELL said, Boris Johnson. His column deriding the ridiculous conclusion of a recent study that encouraging children to play rugby was tantamount to child abuse was spot on. He was also right about the new rules killing the professional game. Players are being given a red card for tackles that were unintentional and in the past wouldn’t even have warranted a yellow card. This makes for an uneven match, spoils viewing and adversely effects the outcome. As Mr Johnson said, there are some situations that a player, when tackling, just can’t avoid.
p. purnell, Woodhall Spa, lincs. A ‘TWADDLE merchant’ (to quote Mr Johnson himself) is someone who writes a full-page newspaper column on the benefits of playing rugby without once mentioning early onset dementia. I can only wonder what former England and Lions hooker Steve Thompson and other sufferers made of such an irresponsible article. And I speak as a rugby fan.
VINCENT HEFTER, richmond, Surrey.
I’M ENJOYING the Six nations rugby but does the BBC really need three people in the commentary box, four in the studio and one on the touchline? no wonder the Corporation is always pleading poverty.
Janet MarShall, Gosforth, Cumbria.