Rugby's empty stadiums
From Mr Mark Dowie Sir: The headmaster of Dover College's let- ter ('Not so soft', 16 October) on that school's abandonment of rugby in favour of soccer cites only the symptoms of rugby's 'moral decline' and misses the root cause. Television's voracious self-promotion as the only true medium through which to enjoy sport is this cause; a development to
which Nick Homby (in that book about his love affair with Arsenal Football Club, Fever Pitch) attributed falling attendance at all but a very few 'super' soccer clubs.
The rugby World Cup should be an irre- sistible magnet for rugby supporters throughout Europe, but the pathetic gates at Murrayfield during the pool stage of the competition demonstrate just how jaded and television-dependent rugby supporters have become. Last year, I took my godson to Murrayfield for Scotland's match against the current world champions. Sadly, it was attended by only 20,000 people who, in a stadium built for the fanatic crowds of old, rattled around quietly and embarrassingly.
The headmaster was indeed a fine rugby player; I was his scrum half at Britannia Royal Naval College and in HMS Fearless. However, I suspect that his school's espousal of soccer has more to do with a reluctance to continue its annual thrashings at the hands of the King's School, Canter- bury than a return to 'muscular Christian- ity'. He may find that the icy winter winds which blast over the cliffs at Dover College will encourage a modern-day Webb Ellis once more to 'pick up the ball'. I hope so. Mark Dowie
House 3,9 Cape Drive, Chung Horn Kok, Hong Kong
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