'The book is as compelling and open-hearted as Williams is... It is full of the beguiling Sonny Bill sunshine' Don McCrae, Guardian 'Excellent' David Walsh, Sunday Times __________ Out now: the extraordinary and revealing autobiography of one of rugby's most entertaining and complicated figures 'I lived for winter Saturdays and played footy at lunchtime and after school, while at home I passed, kicked, tackled and discussed the game endlessly with my big bro. I ignored bad weather; I just wanted to play. When there weren't enough numbers to make up teams, a few of us kids would still get together and practice. That's where my offloads were born.' __________ As a shy part-Samoan boy growing up in the suburbs of Auckland, Sonny Bill Williams thought about footy constantly. For him, the dream of playing professional NRL was so big that nothing else ever came close. Fast forward to 2004, and eighteen-year-old Sonny Bill's dream was coming true. Making his first-grade debut for the Canterbury Bulldogs, he would become an integral part of their premiership-winning team and be named Rookie of the Year. The league culture was train hard, play hard and then party hard. Alcohol, drugs, women - it was a slippery slope for a naive teen looking to find his place. Too soon, the joy of winning a premiership gave way to an emptiness that not even footy could fix. Struggling, Sonny made a decision that for many was unforgivable. He walked out on the Bulldogs and flew to France. Scathing headlines, subpoenas and threatened lawsuits followed. But so too would come the realisation that he couldn't run from the man in the mirror. In this powerful, open and honest memoir, Sonny Bill shares the triumphs and missteps of his extraordinary sporting life and reveals how faith and family have made him the man he is today. __________ Sonny Bill Williams is a once in a generation athlete - a player with immense sporting talent in rugby league, rugby union and boxing. In his remarkable career, he has won World Cups with the All Blacks in 2011 and 2015 and helped the Kiwis reach the 2013 final of the rugby league equivalent. Compelling and searingly honest, You Can't Stop the Sun from Shining is essential reading for any sports fan.

This title is Eddie Waring's personal take on some of the greatest rugby league players of all time written in his own idiosyncratic and entertaining style.

Runcorn was a hotbed of rugby in the late Victorian era, the town’s club a proud founder member in 1895 of the Northern Union – the breakaway game that became known as Rugby League. Yet that great rugby tradition was ended by the First World War, with devastating effects for many Runcornians, including members of the rugby club, who served and lost their lives. Runcorn nurtured ten international rugby players in total, all but one born within a few hundred yards of the Irwell Lane ground. Respected sports writer and historian Michael Latham recreates those far-off days when the oval ball dominated and the town’s heroes included Harry Speakman, a member of the first rugby tourists to Australia, Sam Houghton, Jimmy Butterworth, Jimmy Jolley and Dick Padbury, among just a few in a gallery of colourful characters, the rugby league superstars of their day. With a detailed biographical and records section to complement the deeply researched narrative, this is one of the most comprehensive histories ever written about the Northern Union and contains around three hundred photographs. Harry Price was once a promising Runcorn player, snapped up by Wigan in 1906, where he became a highly regarded and popular player and captain. The report announcing his signing in the Wigan newspaper had a simple, approving testimonial: “Price was born in Runcorn, the home of footballers.� Hence the book’s title.

They were among the sporting elite of 1914 - the stars of the Northern Union - idolised by thousands of enthusiastic men, women and children up and down the land. Yet despite their heroic status in what was soon to become known as rugby league, these warriors of the playing field were willing to sacrifice their careers - and then lives - on the World War One killing fields, for King and Country. Other sports have honoured their Great War fallen over these past 100 years, producing Rolls of Honour to ensure that their ultimate bravery is never forgotten; not so rugby league - until now. The Greatest Sacrifice - Fallen Heroes of the Northern Union - rights that wrong. It tells the story of talented sportsmen who, when war was declared on 4 August 1914, duly departed for France, Belgium and beyond, never again to see the rugby league towns and grounds they once so famously graced. Among those who fell were three members of Great Britain's 1914 summer tour to Australia and New Zealand. A number of other former internationals died too, as did many more who had earned top domestic honours with their clubs. Some of the youngest players were just embarking on professional careers and therefore never able to fulfil their potential. Each player featured has a different tale to tell - from childhood to rugby stardom to enlistment into the British Army and, finally, the greatest sacrifice of all.

The Warrington Wolves Miscellany is the definitive set text for every fan of the world famous Wire. Packed with facts, fun, gossip, nostalgia and conjecture, it looks back over 135 years of glorious history to celebrate the personalities, victories and controversies of the sport's biggest name. Handily pocket-sized to pull out in the middle of those pub arguments over who was the fastest, dirtiest or biggest, this book will not only tell you who scored the most tries, kicked the most goals or won the most trophies, but also who earned the most red cards, which former player still haunts the town and who was sent off twice in one match. Put down your pie and pick up a copy.

Hunslet RLFC is once one of the biggest names in Rugby League. The Hawks have a long and proud history, including many epic matches, and this book features 50 of them, including the match that sealed the All Four Cups success in 1908, the 1938 Championship final over arch-rivals Leeds and the 1965 Challenge Cup final.

Hull in 1980. The fishing industry is in terminal decline, the Humber Bridge still unfinished. A depraved killer is on the loose and Hull City FC look doomed to another relegation. But, on a long Bank Holiday weekend in May, all thoughts turn to Wembley...and the chance for ultimate bragging rights. Against a backdrop of a dramatically changing city, Last One Out...traces the story of how Hull's two rugby league teams emerged from mid-seventies gloom to take their place at the very top of the game - exerting a dominance over the sport that others would follow. Featuring first-hand interviews with players, officials and supporters, this is the definitive history of the ultimate rugby league derby; the early rounds and the draw that kept them apart,the clamour for tickets, the divided families and that famous sign on the road heading south. It tells of Roger's joy, Sammy's despair and the story behind 'that try'. Later, there was the pride and emotion of the homecoming. Later still, the game enteredhistory, spelling joy for one side, despair for the other and encapsulated in a song the losers were taunted with until another dramatic Wembley victory more than three decades on. More than just a derby, more than just a cup final, this is the story of an exodus: the day Hull invaded Wembley. Perfectly timed for the city being UK capital of culture in 2017.

Frank Whitcombe, described as 'one of the greatest Welsh rugby league forwards of all time', played for Bradford Northern, Wales, and Great Britain. Adored by Bradford supporters and admired by the rugby league fraternity, such was his prowess that he was named in the Bradford Northern all-time greats team. The Indomitable Frank Whitcombe, lovingly tells the incredible story of a rugby league legend who was born and raised, as one of ten children in Grangetown, the heart of working-class Cardiff. Frank's rugby career, after a brief and successful spell as a boxer, began in rugby union, when he played for the British Army and London Welsh, as a deceptively nimble and skilful 18 stone forward. His talents were quickly spotted by rugby league scouts, and Frank was persuaded to 'go north' for GBP100 and two new suits, although the cost of buying himself out of the Army left him just GBP10, and the suits! Frank was made for rugby league and he enjoyed a glittering career in professional rugby, winning the RL Challenge Cup three times, the RL Championship three times and was capped 14 times by Wales.He quickly created a big impression on the Great Britain selectors and he was chosen for the famous 1946 'Indomitables' tour of Australia. Frank excelled as the tourists made history and won plaudits from antipodean fans and media alike as the team became the first, and to date only GB tourists, to win a rugby league Test Series, undefeated, 'down under'. After 331 games, Frank bowed-out of rugby with Bradford Northern, four days after playing in a Challenge Cup final at Wembley, in his last match at Odsal; a game which attracted 19,000 fans. He then turned to life as an RL administrator and publican before his life was tragically cut short by pneumonia at the age of only 44. Frank was a true giant of rugby league and this is the first book to tell his remarkable story.

Eric Ashton was the epitome of a rugby league hero. Here, in the third in a series of republished 'Rugby League classics', his story is retold, accompanied this time by a new introduction from BBC commentator Ray French.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Widnes R.LFC were labeled the 'Cup Kings'. When the team narrowly lost the 199.1 Challenge Cup Final against Wigan, it marked the end of 20 seasons of the Club as a major force in British Rugby League. 'End of an Era' is a chronicle of the last six of those 20 seasons from the 1987/88 until the 1992/93 season. Widnes won two successive Championships, three Premierships, the Lancashire Cup and the World Club Championship in that period. Anthony J. Quinn infers in his book that they could have achieved even more, and perhaps nominated British Rugby League until the advent of Super League in 1996. He suggests the famous World Club Championship victory in 1989 may have had "ramifications". He speculates that it may have cost a third successive Championship and a place in the 1990 Challenge Cup Final, which in turn may have led to the departures of coach Doug Laughton and star winger Martin Offiah from the Club. The author also gives his opinion that the Club should not have signed Jonathan Davies. Whilst acknowledging the Welshman's great performances for Widnes, he writes that his signing was a factor in the Club's financial problems that along with the departures of Laughton and Offiah resulted in an era ending before it should have done.

The story of a Rugby League legend. A gentleman off the field and a brute on it, John Sattler was one of the most feared players of his era. He was equally renowned for his toughness and courage- famously, he played 77 minutes of the 1970 Grand Final with a shattered jaw, leading the Rabbitohs to victory over Manly. Here for the first time he tells his story in his own words and in his own style- honest, uncompromising and direct. It's the story of a boy from the bush who led the Pride of the League back to its rightful place at the top of the Sydney premiership. Along the way, Sattler toured with the Kangaroos, played in four winning Grand Finals and survived a near-fatal car crash. While he later built a new life for himself as a proud Queenslander, Sattler will always remain a South Sydney legend and an icon of the game. 'The story of one of the game's greatest heroes.' Russell Crowe 'If you say South Sydney, you automatically think of Johnny Sattler. He was the iconic, archetypal Rabbitoh warrior.' Ray Martin

Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain forward Barrie McDermott is a modern rugby legend. Often described as notorious by the press, he admits he has had more punch-ups than hot dinners. McDermott has been at the very top of British Rugby League for more than a decade, starring for Oldham, Wigan and Leeds and earning caps for England, Ireland and Great Britain. But what is not widely known is that McDermott has achieved all this despite having lost an eye in a shooting accident when he was just 15. Away from rugby he has had regular brushes with the law - and in 1996 made headlines when he was the first person in the country to be arrested by police using CS gas. He later spent time behind bars after skipping bail to play for Leeds in a match in Paris, being arrested as he got off the plane on the homeward journey. He has appeared before the Rugby Football League's disciplinary committee many times, missing over 40 matches through suspension. This outspoken autobiography of one of rugby's hardest men lifts the lid on one of the most remarkable careers in British sport.

This title presents the story of the spread of rugby league throughout the universities and colleges of Great Britain.

Every Sunday for almost a century John Cann's family ran the famous snake show in a pit at La Perouse in Sydney - an area once alive with tiger, brown and black snakes. After growing up with over 300 'pet' snakes in their backyard, John and his brother George took over the snake show from their parents in 1965. By the time John retired in 2010, he'd survived five venomous snake bites. Many of those familiar with John and his shows wouldn't know that he was also an Olympic athlete, a top state rugby league player who played alongside some of the legends of the game, a state champion boxer, an adventurer and a world authority on turtles. The Last Snake Man chronicles John's extraordinary life and times. From wrangling snakes to chasing turtles, from remote country towns to the impenetrable jungles of New Guinea, this is the story of an amazing Australian and his never-ending search for fascinating animals and adventure.