Sir, Rugby is no more dangerous than it was in the past, when the benefits of healthy team sport were first advocated (report, Mar 2, and letters, Mar 2, 3 & 4). Various areas, however need serious attention. First, coaching. From junior to professional level, coaches must be required to concentrate more on handling skills and safety in contact (including tackling). All coaches should be suitably trained and, in practice, observed and advised (as indeed referees are). Recently implemented ways of introducing the game are already helping to make rugby more skilful and enjoyable for youngsters.
Second, when I was with the England Under 20s three years ago at their World Cup, two props told me that the purpose of the scrum was to win a penalty, and that was how they were coached at their clubs. This mentality has to go. If scrums collapse repeatedly, referees should not reset them time and again and give penalties, often without being sure who caused the offence. Why not send off the front rows en bloc and have uncontested scrums for ten minutes?
Third, referees must observe the existing laws. The game would be improved instantly if all players were required, as per the laws of the game, to stay on their feet at the tackle area. Consistent penalising of offending players would soon change the way they are coached.
The above would result in fewer injuries and a more dynamic, skilful and enjoyable game, with the focus on ball skill and evasion, and a main aim of scoring tries — indeed, exactly what the All Blacks always aspire to.
Bob Reeves
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RFU president 2013-14
Sir, At my school I see the benefits first hand of playing rugby and the values it can instil in young people. World Rugby and the governing bodies are constantly reviewing safety. Increased awareness of concussion and injury prevention is helping to make the game safer via a combination of junior rule changes, tighter refereeing of the scrum, training for coaches about concussion and overall better coaching practice. These measures make the sport safer than it was when I was coming through the junior ranks. It is vital that, as a sport, we address concerns about safety. This can be done by following the highest safety standards in the professional game and on the school playing field.
Michael Owen
Director of rugby at Haileybury, former captain of Wales and British and Irish Lion
Sir, Your leader writer seems to have no musical ear (“Anthem for Albion”, Mar 4). Far from being “plodding”, God Save the Queen is a jaunty song if sung properly. Certain rugby organisers have in recent years played the songs of visiting teams slowly to make them sound uninspiring. This is just another example of professional gamesmanship. Flower of Scotland, which you praise, is a sad, defeatist little dirge. It specifically says that Scotland has no more heroes like the men of old and none in sight. It is not even a traditional Scots song like Scotland the Brave, which the lacrosse team sings.
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The national anthem of Scotland is God Save the Queen, and the day the Scottish team goes out and sings it louder than the English team will be the day when Scotland again thump England at rugby.
Peter Demetriadi
Wingfield, Suffolk
Sir, Your leader suggests that England’s sporting teams and supporters should sing Jerusalem with gusto. No song whose lyrics consist entirely of questions to which the answer is “No” should be sung anywhere.
John Julius Norwich
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London W9
FARMERS BACK THE EU
Sir, Leaving the EU is too great a risk for UK farmers. The European single market accounts for 73 per cent of Britain’s agri-food exports and gives us access to a market more than twice the size of the US. Outside the EU we could keep all or some of this market, but we would have to abide by EU regulations without a say in their formation and pay into the EU budget without receiving EU payments in return. We’d pay, but have no say.
The Leave campaigns talk about trying to negotiate a free trade deal similar to the Swiss model. But that would not cover all products and would not give the same unrestricted access as provided by the single market. Where we did get duty-free access we would still be required to meet EU standards and regulations. In other words, the regulatory bonfire we’ve been promised by the Leave campaigns just wouldn’t happen. In any case, some of the worst regulations, as well as the “gold-plating” of EU directives, happen in the UK, not Brussels. On direct payments, Leave campaigners have said it is inconceivable that any UK government would drastically cut support. But it is government policy, set by Labour and endorsed by the coalition government in 2011, to abolish direct payments in 2020.
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Leaving the EU would mean reducing our access to our most important market, little or no reduction in regulation, no influence on future rules, the speedy abolition of direct support and an uncertain future for UK agriculture.
Sir Peter Kendall, former president, NFU; John Shropshire, chairman, G’s Fresh; Jilly Greed, co-founder, Ladies in Beef; Duncan Worth, chairman, QV Foods; Michael Sly, chairman, English Mustard Growers Plus a further 34 names at thetimes.co.uk/letters
Sir, It is disappointing that Priti Patel (Opinion, Mar 3) chooses to press-gang entrepreneurs into her political posturing. Her ideological demonising of Europe does not appear to reflect reality. A pre-election meeting of entrepreneurial business leaders on this science park last April demonstrated overwhelming support for remaining in Europe. Further, the most onerous red tape cited by small business is not EU regulation but the UK tax code, whose complexity is in a league of its own.
Jonathan Williams
CEO, Marine South East Ltd, Southampton Science Park
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Sir, How ageist and patronising is this strategy (“Grab your granny for Europe, In campaign urges the young”, Mar 4)? It ignores the accumulated wisdom of age gained from experience and knowledge, in favour of a trite argument based on self-interest.
Mrs L Hughes
Newton Abbot, Devon
SCIENTIFIC INSIGHT
Sir, Melanie Phillips’s premature obituary for enlightenment and peer review misunderstands the scientific process (“Science is turning back to the dark ages”, Mar 4). No scientist believes that every paper should be believed simply because it is published. Peer review does not stop with publication. The court of science never passes a final judgment but constantly re-evaluates the evidence to arrive at our current understanding. There will be occasional fraud or bias. More often there will be error because at the frontiers of knowledge, the facts are unclear and can rarely be settled in a single stroke. Even when they become clear and are taken for granted, they occasionally get overturned by new findings. The evidence will win out in the end.
As science explores ever more complex questions, it is increasingly difficult to give simple answers or to zero in on the truth in one step. However, this does not mean we should give up. Science is not “turning back to the dark ages”. It is not perfect but science is still our best bet for understanding the world around us and for improving our lives.
Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, FRS
President, Royal Society
Sir, Melanie Phillips’s critique of environmental and medical scientists is misplaced. Although we make no claim to “hold the keys to the universe”, there is no need for us to “claim” that carbon dioxide emissions are causing ocean acidification, as that is an undisputed chemical process. The effects on ocean life are not completely understood. Several hundred studies have been published that show no effect on some organisms, which disproves Ms Phillips’s assertion that such research has been “excluded”. More importantly, many more studies indicate serious and increasing risks ahead for all kinds of marine animals, including corals. For example, when intact coral reefs are (re-)provided with seawater that has the same chemistry of 200 years ago, their growth rates increase by about 7 per cent.
Ms Phillips is also mistaken in her contention that climate scientists conspired to “hide the decline” in global temperatures. That claim, from 2009, has been amply disproven in repeated inquiries.
Dr Phillip Williamson
UK ocean acidification research programme, University of East Anglia
VILLAGE BROADBAND
Sir, The residents of Miserden in Gloucestershire should count themselves lucky with their 1.3 Mbps average internet speed (“Villagers would get faster broadband if they moved to Everest base camp”, News, Mar 4). In our corner of Northumberland we average 0.53 Mbps, meaning that to download Windows 10 took me four days, while recently I finally got my copy of The Sunday Times after eight hours. No question of downloading catch-up, which takes six hours for a half-hour programme. Needless to say, we pay precisely the same as those receiving the maximum speed.
Alison Cochrane
Castle Heaton, Northumberland
LINGERING TABOO
Sir, Further to Deborah Ross’s article about menstruation (Mar 3) it is sad that periods are still such a source of shame and a taboo subject in so many areas. In the 1950s a young priest had to officiate at the funeral of a 14-year- old girl who had committed suicide because she had started menstruating but had no idea what was happening to her and thought that she had a sexually transmitted disease. The priest’s name was Chad Varah, and he was horrified and angry about what had happened. That was how and why he founded The Samaritans.
Hazel Leventhal
Aspley Heath, Beds
DRESS TO IMPRESS
Sir, If the approach to staging and costume at the English National Opera remains as it was for the recent performance of The Magic Flute, I am unsure as to whether or not I would recognise a lack of theatrical dress in the chorus (letter, Feb 29). “Business day dress” seems the order of the day, thereby exacerbating the plight of the chorus in making their point.
Perhaps Sylvia Crookes’s solution provides not only potential economic viability but enhanced artistic merit and the “exposure” the chorus seek; just in time for Akhenaten!
Robert Eveleigh
Terling, Essex
SWIM WITH WADERS
Sir, I had a pair of chest waders — in my case chin waders, as I am somewhat short — that not only did not leak, but once saved my life (letter, Mar 3). I was wading in the River Spey by Aberlour a few years ago when I stepped in a hole and lost my balance. I was swept away by the very fast current, and the waders filled with air, giving buoyancy; I floated about a mile downstream to the other bank, with rod and hat still intact. The ghillie on that beat hauled me out with a broad grin and a half bottle of whisky.
Peter Kottler
Brixworth, Northants
THREE-BOX VOTE
Sir, The proposal by Timothy Young QC (letter, Mar 4) for three boxes on the EU referendum voting form reminds me of the vote on whether to admit women members to one of our more traditional golf clubs. The suggested options for the ballot paper were: “Yes”, “No” and “Good God no”.
Stephen Grant
Rottingdean, Brighton and Hove