Madam, - There must be a number of people who, like me, are puzzled by the correspondence on this subject and indeed by the whole rugby mystique. I have to confess that as a game, I can't make head or tail of it.
As I see it, the ball is the wrong shape; there is no goalkeeper; there is very little kicking, except to get the ball off the field, and games are often won by penalties for very obscure breaches of the complex rules! I could go on, but you get the gist.
Having said all that, wasn't the World Cup final very exciting? You couldn't write a better script: a last-second kick resulting in extra time, another last-second kick resulting in an England win. Shades of the 1966 real football World Cup Final! I was there, and I cheered, God forgive me. I cheered with the rest. - Yours, etc.,
W.J. MURPHY, Malahide, Co Dublin.