Right to exploit rugby’s rules against England?

stupidity, for the imaginary line that runs through the ball and parallel to the horizontal lines on the field is the true offside line. Referee Romain Poite must have had a brainstorm for not punishing the deliberate offsides that threatened to kill the game. RUSSELL HOPKINS, Leckhampton, Glos. FROM his post-match comment — claiming ‘that wasn’t rugby’ — it seems england’s coach eddie Jones was bereft of his usual smart-alec ripostes after being outwitted by Italy’s coaching staff. Did Jones expect training ground opposition so england could go through their ‘prepared’ paces? It’s an indictment of professional international players to be so ignorant of the game’s laws — and to be so dull as not to employ the simple tactics to counter Italy’s astute exploitation of them. referees (who ‘advise’ too much as it is) aren’t there to tell them how to play — as Mr Poite rightly pointed out to england players on the field. But that’s what happens when the laws are tinkered with to such an extent that international sides abandon their natural style (fiji, france, et al): it’s assumed there is now only one way to play the game. When a side deploys something innovative, automatons apparently become headless chickens. MICHAEL TANNER, sleaford, Lincs. WHAT a moaner Eddie Jones is. His players were so thick they couldn’t work out how to counter the Italian ploy of not forming a ruck. For him to say that he would stop watching rugby if it happened again was childish. G. J. MACKAY, Ardrishaig, Argyll