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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Rugby football > Rugby Union
Donncha O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's leading international rugby
players, and a stalwart of the Munster side. He was a key figure in
the Irish team which won the IRB 6 Nations Grand Slam in 2009, and
has won two Heineken Cup medals and two Magners League titles with
Munster. But that success did not come easy. For such a well known
player with a larger-than-life reputation, his long battle to make
a breakthrough at the highest level is largely unknown. In this
honest and revealing autobiography, Donncha talks in detail about
the personal setbacks and disappointments at Munster and the
unconventional ways he dealt with the frustration of not making the
team for four of five years in his early 20s. He had a parallel
experience with Ireland where it took him nearly six years to get
from fringe squad member to established first choice player. Here
he talks candidly about how he brought discipline to his game, and
about his relationships with the coaches who had overlooked him and
the second row rivals who had kept him on the bench. Donncha talks
also with great warmth about a hectic childhood that was shaped by
the death of his father when he was only six years old. One of the
heroes of his story is his mother Marie who showed incredible
strength and resourcefulness to rear a family of five on her own.
Often deservedly regarded as 'the joker in the pack', what is often
less well known is the serious attitude and intensely professional
approach Donncha brings to his rugby. Joking Apart gives the full
picture, showing sides of the man that will be unfamiliar to
followers of Irish rugby and will surprise the reader.
The making of a New Zealand coaching great Between the years 2012
and 2019, Sir Steve Hansen oversaw an era of such remarkable
success that it would be almost impossible to repeat. His 15-year
career in the All Blacks coaching team is the heaviest footprint in
rugby history. Of the 210 tests he was involved with, his team lost
just 25 times. Of the 107 tests he served as head coach, Sir Steve
accumulated a record 4 World Rugby Coach of the Year awards and
orchestrated 93 victories - a winning percentage of 87 per cent,
the highest of any All Blacks coach. Steve Hansen: The Legacy
delves into the highs and the lows that earned the New Zealand
rugby knight a place in the pantheon of world rugby coaching
greats. Revealing and perceptive, the book uncovers how Hansen
dealt with the immeasurable pressure of leading the world's most
famous rugby team; the tension created by being re-appointed
specifically to win the Rugby World Cup; how he dealt with
high-profile athletes and an exodus of New Zealand's all-time
greats; the endless tug-of-war between commercialism and high
performance; the increasing influence of referees on the game; the
power battle between the northern and southern hemispheres; the
Achilles heel that contributed to the All Blacks' 2019 Rugby World
Cup loss; and how, during his career, he learnt to understand his
weaknesses and use them to his advantage. Much more than a
biography, in Steve Hansen: The Legacy, award-winning writer Gregor
Paul tells the compelling story of the former policeman from
Mosgiel, his quest for world rugby dominance and his journey to
coaching greatness.
Carwyn James treated rugby football as if it was an art form and
aesthetics part of the coaching manual. This son of a miner, from
Cefneithin in the Gwendraeth Valley, was a cultivated literary
scholar, an accomplished linguist, a teacher, and a would-be
patriot politician, who also won two caps for Wales. He was the
first man to coach any British Lions side to overseas victory, and
still the only one to beat the All Blacks in a series in New
Zealand. That was in 1971, and it was followed in 1972 by the
triumph of his beloved Llanelli against the touring All Blacks at
Stradey Park. These were the high-water marks of a life of
complexity and contradiction. His subsequent and successful career
as broadcaster and journalist and then a return to the game as a
coach in Italy never quite settled his restless nature. After his
sudden death, alone in an Amsterdam hotel, his close friend, the
Pontypridd-born writer, Alun Richards set out through what he
called "A Personal Memoir" to reflect on the enigma that had been
Carwyn.The result, a masterpiece of sports writing, is a reflection
on the connected yet divergent cultural forces which had shaped
both the rugby coach and the author; a dazzling sidestep of an
essay in both social and personal interpretation.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Crammed
full of funny stories, below-the-belt banter and amusing
observations, it's gold' Rugby World Once described as rugby's
answer to Ant & Dec, David Flatman and Mark Durden-Smith are
the oddest of odd couples. Now this hugely popular rugby
broadcasting double act have turned to dissecting and celebrating
rugby union in book form. And, as you'd expect, it's a brilliant
combination of in-depth knowledge and hilarious stories. Flats and
Durders Offload covers every facet of the game, from surviving the
front row, what it takes to be a leader, referees both good and
bad, mind games, tournaments and, of course, what really happens on
a rugby tour. They talk about the highs, including Flats not
missing a tackle in his 90-second Six Nations appearance, and the
lows, including Flats not making a tackle in his 90-second Six
Nations appearance. Familiar to millions of fans through their
television work, they provide fascinating and entertaining insight
into the sport they love. They reveal the hardest players, the
greatest characters and the intimate secrets of the front row. They
address key issues facing the sport, such as injury, retirement and
the future of the game. Nothing is off limits and no quarter is
given - to anyone. With insightful analysis, unforgettable stories
and the occasional food reference, Flats and Durders Offload is an
unmissable read for all rugby fans.
Matt Dawson's Lions Tales gives rugby fans a satisfying dose of
wonderful Lions anecdotes, epic stories of triumph and despair, of
camaraderie and controversy, and stirring examples of that special
bond that only competing in the white heat of battle, halfway round
the world, against the mighty All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks,
can engender. Lions Tales is peppered with insight and
laugh-out-loud moments, dredged from the memory banks of Dawson's
own time in the iconic red shirt, and also from his keen interest
in the Lions' remarkable 125-year traditions.
Shortlised for the 2022 SBA Best Sports Book of the 21st Century
prize The gripping inside story of when an England-Scotland rugby
match become more than a game Murrayfield, the Calcutta Cup, March
1990. England vs. Scotland - winner-takes-all for the Five Nations
Grand Slam, the biggest prize in northern hemisphere rugby. Will
Carling's England are the very embodiment of Margaret Thatcher's
Britain - snarling, brutish and all-conquering. Scotland are the
underdogs - second-class citizens from a land that's become the
testing ground for the most unpopular tax in living memory:
Thatcher's Poll Tax. In Edinburgh, nationalism is rising high -
what happens in the stadium will resound far beyond the pitch. Told
with unprecedented access to key players, coaches and supporters on
both sides (Will Carling, Ian McGeechan, Brian Moore and the rest),
Tom English has produced a gripping account of a titanic struggle
that thrusts the reader right into the heart of the action. Game
on. 'A priceless read' Guardian 'Absolutely outstanding' The Times
'An epic tale' Daily Telegraph 'Gripping' Scottish Review of Books
Lewis 'Mad Dog' Moody has been a familiar face in English rugby for
fifteen successful and, at times, painful years. The former
Leicester and now Bath flanker has seen and done it all in a sport
that has changed beyond recognition from his first forays into the
sport to the huge spectacle that rugby, and especially test match
rugby, has become. Known for his near-suicidal fashion of playing
the game, Moody has achieved as much as anyone in the history of
the sport, from league, cup and European honours with an iconic
Leicester Tigers team alongside the likes of Martin Johnson and
Neil Back, to a 2003 World Cup winners medal and an MBE when still
a young man. A great deal of heartbreak would follow - pain,
illness, self-doubt and dark days in the four years before the next
World Cup campaign that saw Moody and England fall in the 2007
final but he re-emerged to finally captain his country to a third
World Cup campaign in 2011. Mad Dog - An Englishman is the story,
warts and all, of one of the most-loved and respected British
sporting figures; a story that allows the reader into the inner
sanctum of a top rugby star's life, from the early days of student
and rugby dressing room mayhem, to the latter years of dedication
to the cause, and utter professionalism against all odds. You may
think some of Lewis Moody's adventures are well-known. You would be
wrong. In this searingly honest autobiography the original 'Mad
Dog' lays himself bare and, along the way, takes you on an
incredible journey that will make you laugh, cry and understand
what it takes to construct a career as successful as Lewis Moody's.
The leaping Springbok on the green jersey of South Africa is one of
the most iconic emblems in world rugby. At the same time, no symbol
in world sport has ever done so much to divide - and then unite - a
nation. Respected by opponents and supported passionately by South
Africans, the Springboks have been a powerhouse rugby nation for
over a century, yet the emblem that now sits alongside the Protea
on the chests of the players was once a symbol of violent
oppression in apartheid South Africa, the epitome of the white
man's dominance over people of colour in the Republic. Told in the
words of Springboks past and present, Our Blood is Green explores
what it means to play for South Africa - from schoolboy dreams to
the sacrifices required to make it to the very top - as well as the
myriad difficulties the players have faced over the years, from the
horrors of apartheid through to the emerging rainbow nation in the
1990s and the multi-cultural World Cup-winning team of today. It is
a fascinating, powerful and poignant read that explores the unity
of a brotherhood that fights to transcend race, culture and class
while simultaneously striving to become the best team on the
planet. Our Blood is Green examines what it truly means to be a
Springbok and it is told the only way it can be - by the players
themselves.
Ian Robertson joined the BBC during the golden age of radio
broadcasting and was given a crash course in the art of sports
commentary from some of the greatest names ever to sit behind a
microphone: Cliff Morgan and Peter Bromley, Bryon Butler and John
Arlott. Almost half a century after being introduced to the rugby
airwaves by his inspiring mentor Bill McLaren, the former Scotland
fly-half looks back on the most eventful of careers, during which
he covered nine British and Irish Lions tours and eight World Cups,
including the 2003 tournament that saw England life the Webb Ellis
Trophy and "Robbo" pick up awards for his spine-tingling
description of Jonny Wilkinson's decisive drop goal. He reflects on
his playing days, his role in guiding Cambridge University to a
long spell of Varsity Match supremacy and his relationships with
some of the union code's most celebrated figures, including Sir
Clive Woodward and Jonah Lomu. He also writes vividly and
hilariously of his experiences as a horse racing enthusiast, his
meetings with some of the world's legendary golfers and his
dealings with a stellar cast of sporting outsiders, from Richard
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to Nelson Mandela. It is a hugely
entertaining story that begins in a bygone rugby age, yet has much
to say about the game in the here and now.
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