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My Life and Rugby

Author: Eddie Jones

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2019-11-21

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1509850716

Winner of the Daily Telegraph Rugby Book of the Year The Sunday Times bestselling rugby book of the year Brilliant, honest, combative – Eddie Jones is a true legend of world rugby and remains an enigmatic figure in the game. In My Life and Rugby he tells his story for the first time, including the full inside account of England’s 2019 World Cup campaign. He describes his experience growing up in a tough working-class area of Sydney, where he first played rugby, and how he learnt from the extreme highs and lows of his own playing career – the numerous successes but also the painful disappointment of never playing for Australia. He tells how he then embarked on a coaching career that has seen him become one of the most experienced and decorated coaches in Rugby Union, spanning four World Cups and three finals. His successes have included masterminding England’s spectacular victory over New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup and engineering the sport’s most stunning upset when Japan beat South Africa in 2015. My Life and Rugby is the story of one of the most compelling and singular figures in rugby. Told with unflinching honesty, this is the ultimate book for all fans of the sport. Written with Donald McRae, twice winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and three-time Sports Feature Writer of the Year, My Life and Rugby is the story of one of the most compelling and singular figures in rugby. Told with unflinching honesty, this is the ultimate rugby book for all fans of the sport. A Best Book of the Year – Daily Mail, Sunday Times, The Times

Leadership

Author: Eddie Jones

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1529072182

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Praise for Eddie Jones ‘A genuine super-coach’ – The Sunday Times ‘His gifts of leadership and organisation are remarkable’ – The Daily Mail Eddie Jones is one of the most successful sports coaches of all time. From coaching three different nations to Rugby World Cup finals and enjoying a winning record with England of nearly 80 per cent, he knows what’s needed to lead and manage high performance teams. For the first time, Eddie reveals what it takes to operate in high pressure environments, the successes and setbacks, and how these lessons can be applied to every walk of life, from coaching a children’s sports team to leading a multinational organization to simply doing your job better. Forthright and unflinchingly honest, Eddie Jones reveals what he has learnt from Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Pep Guardiola, as well as from the founder of Uniqlo and Ron Adams of the NBA. Drawing on stories from nearly thirty years of coaching, Eddie explains how you need humour, humility and relentless curiosity to lead an eclectic mix of superstars – from Maro Itoje to James Haskell, George Smith to Kyle Sinckler – and create teams that are relentlessly hungry to win. Leadership is the ultimate rugby book about what it takes to be the best. Written with Donald McRae, two-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Leadership is the book for anyone who wants to learn how to build and lead a team to success.

Rala

Author: Patrick O'Reilly

Publisher: Hachette Books Ireland

Published: 2013-10-25

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1444743333

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Irish rugby as you've never seen it before -- from the man who got the job every rugby lover would love to have. 'Rala has a gift for making people feel at ease and special at the same time' Paul O'Connell Patrick 'Rala' O'Reilly has been bagman for the Irish rugby team for over twenty years. In that time he's witnessed many highs and lows. But for him rugby has always been about the people, the places and the experiences. Here, with his own inimitable wit and humour, he shares with us his unique memories of his time spent at the very centre of Irish and Lions rugby. From his early days with Terenure RFC to touring with the Lions in 2009 and 2013, to pre-match traditions, pranks, iPod playlists and his love affair with Inishbofin, he tells a behind-the-scenes story of team spirit and friendship. With anecdotes from Keith Wood, Brian O'Driscoll, Donncha O'Callaghan, Jamie Heaslip, Peter Clohessy, Paul O'Connell and others, Rala: A Life in Rugby gives us an insight into the world of rugby - as never seen before. 'He's a gent, a role model ... but, most importantly, he's a great friend' Jamie Heaslip 'Even when I stopped being captain, I'd find my bags in my room when I arrived at the hotel, and my laundry hanging on the back of my door. He didn't have to do that, but then there's so much that he didn't have to do, but he still did' Brian O'Driscoll

Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man

Author: Jay Atkinson

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1429990619

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If all sports are really about war, then rugby is a heart-thumping epic of bayonet charges and hand-to-hand fighting. In Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man, bestselling author Jay Atkinson describes his thirty-five year odyssey in the sport-from his rough and rowdy days at the University of Florida, through the intrigue of various foreign tours, club championships, and all star selections, up to his current stint with the freewheeling Vandals Rugby Club out of Los Angeles. Jay has played in more than 500 matches, for which he's suffered three broken ribs, a detached retina, a fractured cheekbone and orbital bone, four deadened teeth, and a dislocated ankle. Written in the style of Siegried Sassoon's Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Atkinson's book explains why it was all worth it--the sum total of his violent adventures, and the valuable insights he has gained from them.

Lewis Moody: Mad Dog - An Englishman

Author: Lewis Moody

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: 2011-11-10

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1444734350

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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.

Donal Lenihan

Author: Donal Lenihan

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2016-09-22

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1473540011

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As player, manager, and pundit, Donal Lenihan has seen it all in the world of rugby - and done much of it too. A victorious captain of Munster Junior and Senior Schools, he went on to skipper the Ireland team at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 1987 and was a fixture in the second row for over a decade, winning two Triple Crowns and three Five Nations championships. Selected for three British & Irish Lions tours, he was famous for skippering the unbeaten side nicknamed 'Donal's Doughnuts', before taking charge of both Ireland and the Lions as manager. From such a stellar position at the heart of the rugby world, Donal Lenihan has a wealth of stories to tell from both on and off the pitch, from raucous antics on tour to the sometimes difficult fellowship of players in a time of Troubles. He delves deeply into Cork and Munster culture and the influence on his career of his family. And as a much-respected analyst, Donal is also not short on voicing his opinion on the rights and wrongs of the modern game, and how the transition from the amateur to the professional era has affected the heart and soul of rugby. Full of wit, insight and emotional sincerity, this is a rugby book for the ages by a sporting great.

Belonging: The Autobiography

Author: Alun Wyn Jones

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1529058112

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'People think they know him but unless you read this book you will never know the REAL Alun Wyn Jones' – Warren Gatland ‘One of the greatest, and seemingly indestructible, players in history' – A Daily Mail Book of the Year Belonging is the story about how the boy from Mumbles became the most capped rugby union player of all time. It is the story of what it takes to become a man who is seen by many as one of the greatest ever Welsh players. What it takes to go from sitting cross-legged on the hall floor at school watching the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa, to being named the 2021 Lions captain. But is it also about perthyn – belonging: playing for Wales, working his way through the age grades and club rugby and his regional side. How to earn the right to be there, and what it feels like to make the sacrifices along the way. Feeling the connection to players who have come before, and feeling the ties to the millions in front rooms and pubs across the country, coast to coast. Knowing that deep down you want to belong, as everyone does. From playing on the rain-swept pitches of Swansea to making his test debut against Argentina in Patagonia in 2006; from touring with the Lions in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021 to dealing with loss and creating a family – Belonging is the autobiography of one of the most compelling figures in world rugby. Told with characteristic honesty, this is his unique personal story of what it takes and what it means to play for your country: what it means to belong.

Fringes

Author: Ben Mercer

Publisher: Outlier Press

Published: 2021-07-24

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 191500103X

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Updated edition of the #1 Amazon Bestseller LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2020 Sports books tend to detail extraordinary achievements, triumphs against the odds or commemorate World Cup winning captains. This book does not do that. For many, playing professional sport is the Dream Job. Few manage it, very few make it to the top and for the rest, life is very different. This is their story. In Fringes, Ben Mercer invites you to witness life at the outer edges of professional rugby. This is a first hand account of what life is like as a journeyman professional athlete. You play, but to the wider public you don't exist. You earn but you don't drive a flash car. You sometimes pack out a stadium but sometimes, you play in a deserted park. This is the story for the majority of sports professionals. Only the minority taste the top, only one person gets to lift the cup or win the medal, only 15 get to play for England at any one time. For the rest, that’s not the case. Ben Mercer is a former professional rugby player who after becoming disillusioned and uninspired plying his trade in the English Second Division, accepted an offer out of the blue to go to France and do something different - help an amateur team turn professional. This is a first hand account of what life is like in the lower reaches of professional sport - where your employment status is as precarious as your health and barely anyone will know your name. It's about how it feels to live year to year, with teammates constantly on the move. It's about how professionalism irreversibly changes the French club Stade Rouennais as they move up the divisions, about the tension between progress and identity in a rugby team. It's also about how it feels to actually be out there on the field, how it feels to occasionally do something extraordinary and how it feels when this is no longer enough for you to make the sacrifices that you need to make to keep playing. There's no ghostwriting, it's an unmitigated meditation on how it feels and what it means to play rugby for a living, to dedicate yourself to an uncompromising but occasionally beautiful game. If you've wanted to know what life is really like as a professional athlete, on the Fringes, away from the glitz and glamour of the international game then look no further.

More than Rugby

Author: Pierre Spies

Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa

Published: 2012-09-28

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0143528955

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You might never play rugby again.' Everything that I had done for the largest part of my life had been centred around rugby, so you can imagine the shock I experienced on hearing that. But if you thought that was bad - there's more. The doctor went on to say that I could even die. That was the truly devastating part! From being on cloud nine - selected for the Springbok squad to go to the World Cup - I had been hit with shattering news that was more than enough to knock the wind out of my sails. I couldn't believe it - just when my career was beginning to soar. Being a top scorer in the winning Super 14 team, giving great performances in the Tri Nations and against England at Loftus, getting selected into the Springbok squad for the World Cup - and now this? These are the words of Pierre Spies, capped as a Springbok aged 21 only to be told a year later that he may never play rugby again. In More than Rugby, Spies, one of the most imposing and explosive loose forwards that South Africa has ever produced, shares his own story for the first time: his family life, his numerous sporting triumphs, and his faith. Much more than a sports biography, this is the moving, personal story behind the well-loved 'No. 8' of South African rugby. With a Foreword by Victor Matfield and contributions from Morné Steyn, Bryan Habana and Juan Smith.

My Life as a Hooker

Author: Steven Gauge

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2012-02-06

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0857655795

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Steven Gauge’s response to an impending midlife crisis didn’t involve piercings, tattoos or a red sports car – instead, he decided to take up rugby. What he found on the pitch was a wonderful game, far removed from the professional televised glamour of international rugby, where ordinary blokes with ordinary jobs (and some extraordinary bellies) get together once in a while and have a great time rolling around in the mud. By the end of his first few seasons, Steven had cracked his nose and various other parts of his anatomy – but he had cracked the game too, and found a place in the club as Captain of the Fourths.