A SNIPPET reported that 100,000 rugby union supporters had attended St James's Park in Newcastle when Clermont Auvergne and La Rochelle met on Friday night and Saracens and Leinster met on Saturday afternoon and there had been just one arrest for a drugs offence (Echo, May 13).

Soccer should take a long look at itself and note the real bonhomie that rugby union supporters have for each other.

In the 1960s, I played my first 1st XV game for Durham City in London against a team called Sutton on a Saturday morning and then we went to Twickenham to see England 'thrash' Scotland 4-3! I bought a Party 7, which was a big tin of beer, and sat about three rows from the front next to a Scot who had a bottle of whiskey and I shared my Party 7 and he shared his whiskey and we got on famously.

Rugby is a much more civilised game both on and off the park. Soccer – the beautiful game? I think not!

Malcolm Rolling, Durham