Letter: Rugby snobs are narrow minded

I WOULD like to enlighten William Milne of Rothes, Moray (Debate, 1 April) who claimed that “rugby [in Scotland] is played and supported by a handful of public school toffs”.

His attitude is indicative of a reverse snobbery suffered by much of the parochial Scottish population whose outlook rarely ventures past their own insular interests.

Although rugby is one of the main sports played in Scottish public schools this is by no means exclusive. A cursory look at the Brewin Dolphin Schools Rugby Tournament shows the finalists of the various boys’ and girls’ competitions included Jedburgh Grammar, Peebles High School, Carrick Academy, Plockton, Aucherarder and Grantown. Schools hardly overrun by “toffs”.

Hopefully he is aware that the Edinburgh v Glasgow Rugby matches regularly achieve of more than 15,000 while more than 30,000 tickets were sold for the recent game between Edinburgh and Toulouse – attendances only beaten by the Old Firm in Scotland who receive far greater media coverage than rugby has ever enjoyed.

Perhaps Mr Milne should broaden his horizons or simply ignore news stories which are of no interest to him?

A Black, Livingston