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Rugby & Sporting Books for you to Enjoy


By Falcons Admin
March 22 2020

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we are approaching even more difficult times in the next few months, I thought I would look at some Sporting/Rugby Books you may want to dip into. I have tried to give a cross selection, hope you enjoy.  Available from Amazon and all good book stores.

Please feel free to add other books of interest to this thread.

 

 The extraordinary, life-affirming autobiography of rugby legend DODDIE WEIR

There has never been anyone quite like Doddie Weir. A giant of the game and a rugby icon, his story is unique, inspirational and charged with a passion for living life to the full.

In a rugby career which had huge highs and shocking lows, Doddie faced some of the greatest players in the game, from Jonny Wilkinson to Jonah Lomu, Brian O'Driscoll to Scott Quinnell and Martin Johnson to Joost van der Westhuizen, and set stadiums alight when "on the charge like a mad giraffe". Now, at the age of 48, Doddie is facing an entirely different adversary: Motor Neurone Disease.

But Doddie Weir has never been one to shy away from a challenge, on or off the pitch, and he has faced up to MND with undaunted positivity, using his boundless energy to raise funds for MND research and support, with more than £1million already raised and committed in the first year.

 

MY NAME'5 DODDIE is a courageous and hugely entertaining celebration of a remarkable life being lived to the max. You will laugh, you may cry, but Doddie's story is an absolute must-read – rugby fan or not.

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Rugby fans will delight in this astonishing collection of outlandish stories from the past 150 years of the game.

Here you'll find, among many other curious events, the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to play against England, the team of top soccer players who beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, the day the entire Wales team was sent off, and when in an astonishing turn of events underdog Japan trimphed and beat South Africa (and who doesn't love an underdog).

The tales in this book are bizarre, fascinating, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated in 2016, this book makes the perfect gift for the rugby obsessive in your life. Word count: 45,000

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Winner of the Rugby Book of the Year Award 2013 at The British Sports Book Awards. In the years leading up to the First World War, the Rugby grounds of Britain became training grounds for 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, Columbia, Ireland and South Africa, but they were united by their love of the game and their courage in the face of war. Stephen Cooper follows them from London to the Western Front, Mesopotamia, Turkey, Italy and Dublin, through some of the war's fiercest battles.

The Final Whistle is a must-read for any rugby enthusiast or First World War historian.

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Following on from the hugely successful Best After-Dinner Sports Tales, yet more rousing stories from the after-dinner speaking circuit, from some of the biggest names in sport as well as celebrities from the world of entertainment.

The book will take a look at the cricket world, with stories from Australia, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand and the sub-continent, and go on to cover many other sports, with contributions from the world of rugby, football, golf, racing and athletics.

Alongside some the biggest names in sport, there will be other celebrities amusing the reader with their favourite anecdotes, including Sir David Frost, Dickie Davies, Sir Patrick Moore, Julian Wilson and well-established Lord's Taverners like Richard Stilgoe, Ronnie Corbett, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and Rory Bremner.

Never before has such a wide range of talent from the worlds of sport and entertainment come together in such striking form. Their stories will provide a richly entertaining read for all the family, male and female, young and old.

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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.

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Rugby & Sporting Books for you to Enjoy
Discussion started by FalconsRugby.org.uk , 22/03/2020 16:42
FalconsRugby.org.uk
22/03/2020 16:42
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
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Leipziger
23/03/2020 09:07
Francois Pienaar's book 'Rainbow Warrior' is a good read, as is 'The Winter Game' by Todd Nicholls.

Not a rugby one but the best sports book I've ever read is 'The Miracle of Castel di Sangro' by Joe McGuinness, and of course 'Leading' by Alex Ferguson is educational as well as interesting.

trummy200
23/03/2020 09:13
Will Greenwoods auto biography - read it years ago but remember it as being very amusing and a good rugby read

Monkey1
23/03/2020 11:45
Final Whistle is going on my shopping list. Thanks for doing this Falcona.

limpopo
23/03/2020 12:22
As I will, unfortunately, be one of the ones who are being subjected to a compulsory bout of solitary confinement until around the 20th of June, two of those books will soon be winging heir way from Amazon.

Monkey1
23/03/2020 12:26
Blimey Limpopo. Couldn't you get it from somewhere a bit closer!
(Sm105)




https://i.pinimg.com/474x/40/82/0a/40820a578498cc72f0bae20d653a5823--map-skills-amazon-river.jpg

limpopo
23/03/2020 12:39
I wish Monkey, if only I could, but a trip to South America could relieve the boredom (Sm58)

leemingtyke
23/03/2020 13:03
Racing Through the Dark - The Fall and Rise of David Millar is the best sporting autobiography I've read. Great, and very honest, insight into the very murky world of professional cycling in the Armstrong era. Highly recommended.

steve1888
23/03/2020 13:16
I was looking for my Francois Pienaar book yesterday and couldnt find it , missing another one of two too, porbs lent them out and forgot.

Had Doddies, Burkeys , Deano, Woodward, Wilko and a couple of general ones , not that I read very often like.

trummy200
23/03/2020 15:28
Jason Robinson's Finding my feet - An in depth biography of one of the most entertaining players to ever represent England and the Lions. Certainly he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth!

aidanb
24/03/2020 06:31
Brian Moores.

Beware of the Dog: Rugby's Hard Man Reveals All

dick g
29/03/2020 13:49
Art Of Coarse Rugby by Michael Green. Hard to find because it dates from the Sixties. But as a playful look at the way the old amateur game was back in the day, is well worth tracking down.

steve1888
30/03/2020 13:58
Tony Cascarino's was the best footie book I've read and WWE Wrestlings William Regal's Walking a Golden Mile is a very good read and while the end product is staged/worked it highlights the struggles he went through and his personal demons. I enjoyed Tony MCCoys Biography too, a sporting great whatever your opinion's on horse racing itself.

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