22 SEPTEMBER 2007, Page 19

Bad associations

Sir: Rod Liddle's rugby piece (8 September) was bad-tempered, foul-mouthed and oikish. The poor fellow seems to have a monstrous chip on his shoulder. There's probably just as much skill in rugby as football (how can one measure such a thing?); but as spectator sports the two are very different. Association Football, as it used to be called, is — let's face it — almost always extraordinarily boring to watch for 95 per cent of the time. Rugby is gripping all the time. I do agree with him about the merits of basketball though.

Nigel Sitwell Chichester, West Sussex