Rugby category: 302 books

This book explores the expansion of rugby from its imperial and amateur upper-class white male core into other contexts throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The development of rugby in the racially divided communities of the setter empire and how this was viewed are explored initially....

A visual history of rugby's greatest sporting event, this beautiful photographic book is a fascinating chronological exploration of the matches, teams, heroes and surrounding stories of the tournament. Each chapter covers a Rugby World Cup, starting with the inaugural competition in 1987 - in which...

Rugby Union as a sport has seen continual evolution over the years, and never more so than since the game officially became professional in 1995. While on the pitch tactics have seen more formalized approaches to skill acquisition, it is off the pitch where the biggest changes have occurred and no...

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...

Rugby union has undergone immense change in the past two decades - introducing a World Cup, accepting professionalism and creating a global market in players - yet no authoritative English-language general history of the game has been published in that time. Until now. A Game for Hooligans...

The first book to tell the story of how the Great War inspired the greatest rugby tournament in the worldAs Britain's Empire went to war in August 1914, rugby players were the first to volunteer. They led from the front and paid a disproportionate price. In 1919, a grateful Mother Country hosted...

Top 10 of Everything Rugby is a journey through the history of international rugby, ranking the best and worst of the game in lists that cover everything from best captains, great rivalries and acts of heroism to wasted talents, scary psychos and darkest scandals. There have been iconic players, gentleman...

Contemporary sports coaching studies have moved beyond simple biophysical approaches to more complex understandings of coaching as a set of social relationships and processes. This is the first book to examine what that means in the context of one major international sport, rugby union. Drawing on...

There’ s an old joke about rugby players and oddballs. However, there certainly have been quite a few of them playing rugby in the history of the game. And not just oddballs, there’ s been pitbulls, quiet men, iron men, and unsung heroes. And you can meet them all in this quirky collection...

Now in its 20th year, the Wooden Spoon Rugby World Yearbook is firmly established as the only illustrated yearbook produced for the rugby enthusiast. In this beautifully illustrated book, many of the country's leading rugby writers reflect on the happenings of the past season and look ahead to what...

For the last 130 years, the Borders has produced a long line of international class rugby players, out of all proportion to the area's small population, and has long been considered the heartland of Scottish rugby. Featuring interviews with many of the leading luminaries of Borders rugby, Neil Drysdale...

Touch Rugby is a rapidly growing game and an attractive sport to rugby coaches and players because of the core skills it develops and the high levels of fitness it encourages. The absence of contact, the high value placed on developing foundational Rugby skills, and the game's capacity to be played...

It's in the early morning, usually on dry, icy cold, thorn-strewn fields, that rugby legends are created. The boys are kaalvoet, the linesmen are spectators, sometimes unwillingly plucked from the makeshift stands, and the aroma of boerewors on hot coals drifts across the field. It is here that the...

The Holcroft saga is a rugby story, the likes of which may never have been equaled in the history of the game. It begins over a century ago, when Mr. George Holcroft was given charge of Leigh St. Peters RLFC in 1889. He married, and when his family grew up, Jack, Harry, William, and Tom all played...