21 MAY 1965, Page 13

Rugby League

Sue.—The best game of rugby Quoodlc has seen this year (by which I take it he means 'this season') was the Rugby League cup final. Poor Quoodle. to have missed the Fiji v. Welsh XV match last Sep- tember!

Quoodle's `uneasy suspicion' that Wigan or St. Helens would have beaten any side that played Rugby Union last season cannot unfortunately be tested. But it does prompt one to wonder which game they would play, Union or League? For they are two different games and the difference is far greater than merely the amateur or professional status of the players. The biggest single difference is the play-the-ball rule. How would the heroes of Wigan fare if they had a couple of hefty for- wards to tear them off the ball and dispute pOssession after a tackle, instead of being docilely allowed to get up and heel the ball to an unmolested member of their own team? My own uneasy suspicion is that they would be massacred, if not routed, to use terms apparently much in favour at the moment.

COLIN D. WESTBROOK

he Vicarage, Sit•athnairn Street, Cardiff