**WINNER British Sports Book Awards SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR****Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award**Gareth Thomas had it all.
When Jonah Lomu trampled over Tony Underwood in the World Cup semi-final in 1995, the greatest star rugby union has ever seen was launched on the world.
In rugby, there are the Flash Harrys and the Glory Boys: the fly-halves who run, kick and dazzle; the scrum-halves who nip and dart; the wingers who step and glide.
There is Rugby Union: the fast, compelling, TV-friendly combat sport in which sponsored gladiators are sold on their ability to crash into each other at top speed, and sometimes even to avoid each other and score.
This is the story of a man from early twentieth century rural Cork who rose to the heights of the RAF and excelled as a major figure in international rugby in the 1920s and 1930s.
In February 1973, the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland were at their very worst and following Bloody Sunday the previous year neither the Scotland nor Wales rugby teams would dare to travel to Ireland to play.
This is almost certainly the first book ever published on the collecting of Rugby Union memorabilia - the jerseys, caps, cups, programmes, prints, photographs, autographs, cards, stamps, badges, medals, books, ephemera and whatever else might encapsulate and evoke a nostalgia for the development of the game.
This is the incredible story of Brian 'Stack' Stevens, born in a remote former mining area of Cornwall with no sporting background, yet found he had an exceptional talent for rugby.
A sport popular in over 100 countries around the world, rugby is said to have originated when William Webb Ellis 'with fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time at Rugby school, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game'.
Cornwall has long been recognised as being one of the hotbeds of English rugby enjoying a level of interest and support even outstripping that of football.
Superbly illustrated with over 70 full colour photographs Written by the club historian A full A-Z off all things Cherry and White from the triumphant and legendary to the deliciously trivial.
A hilarious and, at times, moving and soul-searching account of rugby union's rollercoaster days in the 1990s, told through the eyes of a player who saw it all as the sport lurched shambolically from the crazy final days of amateurism into the professional era.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEARCrammed full of funny stories, below-the-belt banter and amusing observations, it's gold Rugby WorldOnce described as rugby's answer to Ant & Dec, David Flatman and Mark Durden-Smith are the oddest of odd couples.
It was the year 1891, and the first rugby football team from the British Isles was about to embark on a tour of South Africa; any doubts about the financial sustainability of the venture were removed when mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes thumped the table and declared, 'Let them come.
An epic and unforgettable love story begins in Binding 13, the first in the international bestselling and TikTok-phenomenon The Boys of Tommen series, from Chloe Walsh.
An epic and unforgettable love story continues in Keeping 13, the second book in the international bestselling and TikTok-phenomenon The Boys of Tommen series, from Chloe Walsh.
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.
In RUGBY TALES, Lawrence Dallaglio recalls with affection and razor-sharp humour, the behind-the-scenes stories that have previously only been shared within the world of international rugby, together with some classics from his rugby-playing colleagues and mates.
As a Premiership, World Cup and Grand Slam winner, no one better embodies the charisma and the colour of English rugbys greatest era than Lawrence Dallaglio.