Madam, - For a number of years past there has been an obsession among some schools with winning the Leinster schools cup at all cost.
If that means poaching good rugby players from other schools, reducing their fees, giving them a place in sixth year and a place on the team, so be it. This is happening, thank God, in only a few colleges, but it is happening.
Parents are often told the school is booked up for years; there is a waiting list; then the school makes room for good rugby players in the sixth year and gives them a place on the senior team.
This is causing resentment among pupils who have been playing rugby for their school for perhaps 10 years, then lose their place to a new player from another school because the school poached him to win matches.
There seems to be no respect for the morality, the ethics or the injustice of the whole practice. What about the school motto? Does that mean anything now? - Yours, etc,
PATRICK NUGENT, Glenageary Avenue, Glenageary, Co Dublin.