Madam, - Joe Humphreys ( Weekend Review, March 30th) argues that schools rugby - "at a competitive level - is mainly about parents living out their fantasies through their children".
Training a minimum four times a week on the pitch and extra time doing personal training in the gym, could not be influenced by another, not even a parent, but rather by a person's will to win and to obtain a chance to play at the highest level. I'm sure Joe Humphreys would agree that it's better that children play sports and keep fit and healthy rather than having nothing to concentrate their energies on and possibly getting into trouble.
And if this involvement in sport allows them to play at a high level, then all the better.
The only thing parents are doing to influence their children's schools rugby career is sending them to a school which participates in the sport.
And in this case I can't imagine too many parents spending five grand a year or more just to have their son play at a higher standard of rugby. - Yours, etc,
EOIN FITZPATRICK, Pine Valley Avenue, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.