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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Rugby football
What is the state of rugby? Is the game on the brink of expansion?
Or is it on the brink of implosion? No game has undergone so
traumatic a transformation since the turn of the century. The last
of the major sports to embrace professionalism, rugby was propelled
on a trajectory that has twisted its cumbersome frame to the limit
in a drama compelling and appalling to behold. After a hundred
years defying the future, rugby now shudders with the turmoil of
its sudden leap into the modern world, attaining heights hitherto
undreamed of, even as the strains - financial, political, social
and medical - threaten to tear it apart. Unholy Union is a
fascinating and in-depth analysis of the sport, examining the
journey so far and speculating on where it will go next. It is
irreverent and provocative, asking uncomfortable questions of
rugby, but imbued throughout with affection for a game that
integrates all human life, as beautiful as it is ugly, as in love
with itself as it is terrified. Sports enter periods that make or
break them. Rugby is in one now . . .
This paperback edition has been fully updated to include the 2013
Six Nations and the British and Irish Lions Tour. What does rugby
mean to Wales? Where does the heart of Welsh rugby lie? In Calon,
Owen Sheers takes a personal journey into a sport that defines a
nation. Drawing on interviews and unprecedented access with players
and WRU coaching staff, Calon presents an intimate portrait of a
national team in the very best tradition of literary sports
writing. At the 2011 Rugby World Cup a young Welsh side captained
by the 22-year-old Sam Warburton, captured the imagination of the
rugby-watching world. Exhibiting the grit and brilliance of
generations past, an ill-fated semi-final ended in heartbreak. But
a fledgling squad playing with the familiarity of brothers had sent
out an electrifying message of hope: could this be a third golden
generation of Welsh rugby? It was with this question hanging in the
air that Owen Sheers took up his position as Writer in Residence
for the Welsh Rugby Union. Calon is the document of a year spent at
the heart of Welsh rugby; the inside story of a 6 Nations campaign
that galvanised a nation and ended in Grand Slam success for the
third time in 8 years.
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