Tackle thuggery on rugby pitch

THE main photo accompanying Iain Morrison's report on the Scotland v England rugby international ("Missed opportunity for careless Scots", 14 March), is captioned "Scotland winger Max Evans is tackled by England lock Steven Borthwick".

What the picture actually shows is Borthwick grasping Evans's neck with his right hand while pressing his left hand over Evans's mouth and eye.

That isn't what we called "tackling" when I learned the basics of rugby at school many moons ago, and my old PE teacher would have dealt severely with any of his charges who launched such a violent tackle on another player.

International rugby needs to clean up its act.

Harry D Watson, Edinburgh