Sir, – Alan Quinlan (Sport, March 20th) sounds his ochon, ochon story of why our lads can’t measure up to the beastly foreigners. ’Tis our racial inequality, he says, we’re just too small.
Many of our older generations somehow made do on the rugby field despite our apparent lack of bulk.
We didn’t have to be very heavy or even particularly good, but we learned early on that the bigger guys could be brought down if you had them by the ankles. Satisfaction!
How to do it? Learn to go in low and hard, head behind his knees, and down he came. Just as important, neither one got hurt (much!).
Nowadays the tackle is no longer a technique to be learned and perfected. It is just a frontal collision. the so-called “big hit”.
So who wants to play now when he leaves school, to “bulk up” and look like a wrestler on steroids? Not very many.
Time was when “College” had a first team, and a second, third, third A,B,C and D and Freshmen. Now Lansdowne, Wanderers, etc, have trouble fielding a second team.
We have belatedly excluded the dangerous head-high, round-the-neck tackle. So why not make it, say, below waist height, and let all players enjoy the game? – Yours, etc,
FRANK MULDOWNEY,
Shrewsbury Road,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – While Alan Quinlan’s article (Sport, March 20th) was very good regarding rugby matters, I would like to draw attention to his misuse of the word “race” (“But in relative terms, we are not the biggest race of people in the world”).
Obviously, the Irish are not a separate race any more than the Danish – Quinlan should be referring to our nationality, not race. This is a common mistake and allowing it to be repeated in The Irish Times just helps to perpetuate it. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT McDONNELL,
Avenue Adolfo Pinheiro,
Alto da Boa Vista,
São Paulo,
Brazil.