This is the second edition of the acclaimed "IRB World Rugby Yearbook", the most comprehensive rugby yearbook on the planet. Published just after the Rugby World Cup, this special edition will feature all the stats, tables, features and reports from France 2007 as well as all the usual international stats, records and appearances plus incisive features by rugby legends Keith Wood, Will Greenwood, Francois Pienaar, Michael Lynagh and Nigel Starmer-Smith. It includes: all the 2007 world rugby stats; 2007 world cup section including stats and results; world rugby records; 2008 fixtures; the five irb players of the year; and, emirates airlines rugby photo of the year.

Austin Healy is one of English rugby's best-known characters. His extraordinary career has seen him with 50 England caps, star on two British Lions tours and play a leading role in England's most successful club ever - Leicester Tigers. He's rightly regarded as perhaps the most versatile and skilful English player ever and has won fans the world over. But his outspoken nature means he's courted controversy along the way. In "Me and My Mouth", he lays bare the backstage wrangling that bedevilled England's World Cup winners and wrecked those Lions tours - and lifts the lid on the hilarious behind-the-scenes escapades fans rarely get to hear about. Now with a new career as a BBC TV presenter ahead of him, Austin's sure to stay in the public eye...and this book will ensure he keeps on ruffling feathers.

The revelatory autobiography of a rugby colossus: Paul O'Connell. WINNER OF THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR There has never been a rugby player quite like Paul O'Connell. He is synonymous with passion, heart and determination; but he is also the thinking man's rugby player, a legendary student of the game. As the heartbeat of Munster, British and Irish Lions captain in 2009, and captain of the first Ireland team to defend a Six Nations championship, O'Connell has emerged as perhaps the most beloved of the golden generation of Irish rugby players. In an autobiography as intense as its author, he tells the story of his remarkable career. 'The years of O'Connell and O'Driscoll were as close to a golden age as ever Ireland will get and O'Connell's book tells you how it all happened ... It should be mandatory for every Irish squad member to read O'Connell's book to better understand what it takes to make a team' David Walsh, Sunday Times 'O'Connell has emptied the tank here. ... What has come out ... is a psychological profile that is almost shocking at times in what it reveals about the bloody single-mindedness of the competitive gene' Hilary A. White, Irish Independent 'The intense physicality of his rugby upbringing is an abiding theme ... along with humour, the craic and an extensive knowledge of how teams work' Paul Hayward, Daily Telegraph 'I found The Battle entrancing' Stephen Jones, Sunday Times 'Excellent ... [an] eye-opening account of the never-ending battles he fought' Rugby World 'Revelatory ... Unflinchingly charts his personal evolution ... He is not at all easy on himself' Keith Duggan, Irish Times

Updated edition featuring a brand new afterword 'A terrific book. No one put their body on the line quite like Sam Warburton.' Brian O'Driscoll 'It was an absolute privilege to play against Sam. An inspiring leader with an equally inspiring story to tell.' Jonny Wilkinson Sam Warburton OBE was not only a titan of Welsh rugby, but an icon of the game. Having represented his country as a player and team captain at all junior levels, he propelled himself to international attention in 2011 when named as the youngest ever captain of Wales for the Rugby World Cup. Despite his tender age, Sam's immense displays for club and country were recognised still further in April 2013, when, at just 24, he was named the Lions' captain for the extraordinary 2013 tour to Australia. Four years later, after a year 'in the wilderness', Sam was named Lions' captain yet again for the historic tour to New Zealand, thereby becoming the first ever Lions Captain never to lose a series in the professional era. Intelligent, calm, thoughtful - in many ways seemingly the exact opposite of the smash and crash of modern rugby - Warburton's edge never came with his size, but with his depth of thought, his reading of movement, and his understanding that, to be a uniquely successful leader, one needs to set goals that far exceed the ambitions of even the most ferocious of opponents. In leading other men, and in pitting himself against the world's best, Warburton was forced repeatedly to push himself to the very edge of his physiological and mental limits, the 21 significant injuries over that period a painful testament to his sacrifice. Open Side is therefore not simply a chronology of events or a celebration of statistics. Written in a compelling but soul searching style, this is an astoundingly personal book exploring the nature of leadership, the value of self-control, the precision of mindset and of course the future of the game. It is also a deeply personal meditation on the sacrifice of body, the torment of injury and the pain of retirement, a decision Sam was forced to make in July 2018, at just 29 years old. Never before has a rugby autobiography given such intimate access not only to the realities of the dressing room and the heroes and villains of the modern game, but to the unique mindset required to make someone a genuinely great leader of men.

One of the most colourful and controversial characters in Welsh rugby history, Mike 'Spikey' Watkins remains the only player since 1882 to captain Wales on his debut, and win. Discarded by Cardiff RFC and banned by the WRU after the infamous 'Hookers Night Out' incident in November 1978, Spikey, who had regularly played for the Wales B team and was understudy to Bobby Windsor, thought his chance of a prized Welsh cap has disappeared. In this brutally frank and hard-hitting autobiography, 'Spikey' Watkins, the loveable rogue of Welsh rugby, lifts the lid on his roller-coaster playing career and explains how he fought back against the 'blazer-brigade' he despised, returned to captain a hugely successful Newport team and finally got the call from the WRU, due to public pressure from the supporters who adored him, to captain his country to victory against Ireland in 1984.

This is a visual, historical guide to the development and growth of rugby. It includes almost 300 hundred images from the Press Association archives that capture Rugby's finest moments. It also includes background to the most successful teams, greatest matches, a players' hall of fame and guide to the hallowed Rugby grounds. As far back as the 1830s a form of rugby was being played at Rugby Public School, after pupil William Webb Ellis first picked up a football and ran with it. In 1863 the Football Association met to standardise a common set of rules between the kicking and running games but failed to meet with the approval of the rugby fraternity. Twenty-one clubs refused to join the FA and in 1871 set up their own code of practice as 'The Rugby Union'. The popularity of the game quickly spread beyond Britain's shores becoming an international sensation. 100 Years of Rugby in Focus is a visual, historical record of the development and growth of the game, with background to more than a century of the most successful teams and the greatest matches, a players' hall of fame and a guide to the hallowed grounds where the game is played. This story is told in more than 400 photographs from the vast archives of the Press Association, whose photographers were on hand to capture the finest moments of the sport over more than a century.

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. The Grudge brilliantly recaptures a day that has gone down in history when a rugby match became more than a game. This is the real story of an extraordinary conflict, told with astounding insight and 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.

The Rugby Almanack is the world's longest running rugby book of record. It was first published in 1935 to cover the previous season's first-class rugby in New Zealand. Since then it has been published uninterrupted (apart from two combined issues during World War II). Now in its 83rd edition, the 2019 Rugby Almanack records another huge year, including the France in New Zealand, the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship and the Bledisloe Cup, plus Women's Rugby, Super Rugby, Mitre 10 Cup and Mitre 10 Championship and a full summary of sevens rugby.

This lavish and richly illustrated official history of the Harlequin Football Club has been produced to celebrate the 150th anniversary of one of the world's most famous rugby clubs. Nunquam Dormio - the club's motto, 'I Never Sleep' - brings the rich history and heritage of this unique club to life, telling the story of the journey from nomadic amateur club to premier, professional organisation over 264 lavishly designed pages brimming with previously unseen photographs and images of historic memorabilia. Written by highly respected rugby writer Brendan Gallagher in association with many of the key figures in the club's history and compiled by an award-winning publishing team, this book has been put together with the style and spirit of excellence with which Harlequin Football Club is synonymous very much in mind. It focuses not just on the triumphs and the trophies, but crucially the individual and inspirational Harlequins who encapsulate the 'Harlequin Way' and have ensured that the club has always been at the forefront of the game's development - the rugby pioneers who forged not just the shape of the club but rugby itself; the numerous Harlequin war heroes; the great amateurs who devoted everything on top of their day jobs and, in modern times, those who have embraced the professional era and ensured that the magenta, French grey, light blue and chocolate brown quartered flag continues to fly at the pinnacle of the game. Nunquam Dormio is a living, breathing history of Harlequin FC and a fitting centrepiece for its 150th anniversary celebrations.

Walter Sutherland played rugby for Scotland between 1910 and 1914. He was a brilliant player, a genuine folk-hero and also a very good athlete who also represented Scotland at sprinting. This book is a comprehensive biography of Walter Sutherland.

In the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team.

After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated that Schmidt had 'lost the dressing room'. Nine years on, Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Ireland coach having achieved success on a scale never before seen in Irish rugby. Two Heineken Cups in three seasons with Leinster. Three Six Nations championships in six seasons with Ireland, including the Grand Slam in 2018. And a host of firsts: the first Irish victory in South Africa; the first Irish defeat of the All Blacks, and then a second; and Ireland's first number 1 world ranking. Along the way, Schmidt became a byword for precision and focus in coaching, remarkable attention to detail and the highest of standards. But who is Joe Schmidt?

In Ordinary Joe, Schmidt tells the story of his life and influences: the experiences and management ideas that made him the coach, and the man, that he is today. And his diaries of the 2018 Grand Slam and the 2019 Rugby World Cup provide a brilliantly intimate insight into the stresses and joys of coaching a national team in victory and defeat. From the small towns in New Zealand's North Island where he played barefoot rugby and jostled around the dinner table with seven siblings, to the training grounds and video rooms where he consistently kept his teams a step ahead of the opposition, Ordinary Joe reveals an ordinary man who has helped his teams to achieve extraordinary things.

In 1905, Vic Cartwright's England rugby team lined up against Dave Gallaher's touring All Blacks at Crystal Palace - the first ever meeting of two national teams. Ensuing matches, in both the amateur and professional eras, have been dramatic and controversial, steeped in the historical rivalry of the traditional home of the game for the nation that has claimed rugby as its own. Men in white (such as Wakefield, Beaumont, Carling, Leonard and Johnson) versus men in black (Meads, Lochore, Fitzpatrick, Lomu, McCaw). Hakas drowned out by rousing renditions of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'. Grinding forward tussles on cold, murky afternoons and sweeping back-line movements on sun-lit grounds. Thorny Encounters chronicles the first 40 Test matches between England and New Zealand, in which giants of the sport have measured themselves against each other. In the professional era, the match has become the clash of the hemispheres.

Twickenham Stadium is rightly venerated as the home of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). While it may bask in this fame, the stadium' s beginnings were very humble. The land it was built upon was purchased in 1907 and would subsequently become the home to the Harlequins who would play the first ever match against Richmond. The first England test match didn' t take place until 1910 and a home win ensured things got off on the right footing but cows, sheep and horses would be grazing on the pitch just four years later as the stadium became a farm during the First World War. The first Varsity match was played in December 1921, by which time the popularity of Twickenham had soared. Extra accommodation was created in the North Stand, built in 1925 by the legendary football stadium architect, Archibald Leitch. By 1931, the famous ' Twickenham Look' had come about. When the Second World War arrived, the ground became a Civil Defence depot, and the closest it got to being hit by enemy action was in July 1944 when a V1 flying bomb fell in the front garden of a house opposite the West Gate, injuring sixteen people. The car park was dug up and - appropriately given its original use - turned into allotments to generate much needed fresh food for the locals. The stadium today is at the heart of a multi-million pound business that the RFU controls, but how does it generate so much money from this one plot of land? With such a colourful and celebrated history The Secret Life of Twickenham will dig deeper into it' s history to reveal the many men and women, cutting across all social backgrounds, jobs, and positions within the RFU who have helped to build this iconic stadium into a globally recognised brand. It will reveal to all fans of rugby union the true history of the most iconic sports stadium in the British Isles with a compendium of facts, dates, figures and revealing anecdotes of England' s sporting fortress.

In 2013, England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster embarked on an ambitious project to turn Twickenham Stadium into England Rugby's 'sixteenth man'. Drawing upon the rich heritage created by all those who have worn the red rose since the birth of international rugby, he introduced a series of innovations around the stadium, which has since become the most advanced rugby ground in Europe. Inside the England dressing room, a roll of honour records the names of all those to have worn the shirt. Each player, when selected to represent their country, receives a unique number that indicates their place in a tradition that began on 27 March 1871 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, when the world's first international rugby match took place. The current team are seated around the dressing room according to their position. Behind where each player sits is a list of the ten players per position to have represented England, under the title One of Us. This fascinating book explores the process behind these innovations and details the achievements of those deemed to be England's greatest players.

Kreatiewe rugby is die perfekte gids om uitstekende rugby te ontwikkel. Dit help spelers om die kreatiewe manier van rugbyspeel te ontdek, wat die spel opwindend en onvoorspelbaar maak. Elke speler se brein word so afgerig om die lyf, spel en manier van dink op ’n goeie manier te beinvloed. Die boek sal elke speler se brein en kreatiwiteit ontwikkel vir die spesifieke posisie waarin hulle moet speel en afrigters ook wys waarna hulle moet oplet wanneer hulle spelers soek vir ’n sekere posisie. Elke speler se breinprofiel sal ook bepaal kan word.

What made Pontypool such a great seam of talent for the Welsh national team? Why were they hated and feared in equal measure by other clubs in Wales and across the Severn? What made Ray Prosser a coach ahead of his time? In this engrossing book, Alun Carter and Nick Bishop recount the dramatic story of the rise and fall of one of the great enigmas of Welsh club rugby: Pontypool RFC. They chart the glories and violence of the amateur era in the 1970s and '80s before the club entered a period of steady decline in the age of professionalism, reaching the point of bankruptcy after a crippling legal battle with the Welsh RU. It is a symbolic tale of the disintegration of the social fabric that held a once-great club together, both on and off the playing field - often irresistibly funny, eventually tragic, but always larger than life.

WINNER OF THE BRITISH SPORT BOOK AWARDS - RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR This is the story of 15 men killed in the Great War. All played rugby for one London club; none lived to hear the final whistle. Rugby brought them together; rugby led the rush to war. They came from Britain and the Empire to fight in every theatre and service, among them a poet, playwright and perfumer. Some were decorated and died heroically; others fought and fell quietly. Together their stories paint a portrait in miniature of the entire War. The Final Whistle plays tribute to the pivotal role rugby played in the Great War by following the poignant stories of fifteen men who played for Rosslyn Park, London. They came from diverse backgrounds, with players from Australia, Ceylon, Wales and South Africa, but they were united by their love of the game and their courage in the face of war. From the mystery of a missing memorial, Cooper's meticulous research has uncovered the story of these men and captured their lives, from their vanished Edwardian youth and vigour, to the war they fought and how they died.

Warren Gatland is one of the most renowned rugby coaches of the last 20 years, leading Wales to three Six Nations titles, two Grand Slams and a World Cup semi-final, and delivering two successful tours as Head Coach of the British and Irish Lions. As he leaves his post as Head Coach of Wales at the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, his autobiography chronicles a highly eventful and successful three decades in rugby. The personal journey spans New Zealand, Ireland, England and Wales, and Gatland reflects in characteristically thoughtful and intelligent fashion on a lifetime spent playing and coaching the sport which has been his passion since first picking up an oval ball as a boy in the land of the mighty All Blacks.

Bootsie is back! But now everything in his life has turned upside-down. While exploring his new neighbourhood, a chance meeting with a rugby-mad boy called Robbie, helps Bootsie feel that he might start to belong. Then Bootsie joins a new club and discovers that all his previous good seasons with his beloved Bulldogs count for nothing with the new coach, and starting all over again is harder than he thought. Just as he's about to give up, Bootsie discovers that strength and encouragement can come in many disguises...

Another fantastic adventure featuring Bootsie as he starts a new rugby season with hopes for selection in the regional schoolboys' team. But first the Hornets will need to adjust to the new coach Mr. Butkiss and his outlandish ideas about training.Can Bootsie use his newly learned skills to get himself closer to achieving his dream or will Robbie's arrogant attitude let everyone on the team down?