Download or read book Hard Men of Rugby written by Luke Upton and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2020-10-23 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gruesome stories of the hardest, most ruthless rugby players from around the world since World War I. As talented as they were fiery, many were just as lively off the pitch as on it. In our era of citing commissioners, super slow-motion replays and trial by social media, some of their actions are quite hard to believe! Foreword by Nigel Owens.

Download or read book Hard Men of wel Rugby written by Lynn Davies and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at 20 rugby union players who fought on wel pitches for little but pride and honour in the days prior to the game turning professional in 1995, such as Dai Morris, Graham Price, Ray Prosser, Brian Thomas, Delme Thomas, Geoff Wheel, J P R Williams, R H Williams, W O Williams and Bobby Windsor.

Download or read book Hard Men of Welsh Rugby written by Lynn Davies and published by Ylolfa. This book was released on 2011 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at 20 rugby union players who fought on Welsh pitches for little but pride and honour in the days prior to the game turning professional in 1995, such as Dai Morris, Graham Price, Ray Prosser, Brian Thomas, Delme Thomas, Geoff Wheel, J P R Williams, R H Williams, W O Williams and Bobby Windsor.

Download or read book Nobody Beats Us written by David Tossell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1970s, an age long before World Cups, rugby union to the British public meant Bill McLaren, rude songs and, most of all, Wales. Between 1969 and 1979, the men in red shirts won or shared eight Five Nations Championships, including three Grand Slams and six Triple Crowns. But the mere facts resonate less than the enduring images of the precision of Gareth Edwards, the sublime touch of Barry John, the sidesteps of Gerald Davies and Phil Bennett, the courage of J.P.R. Williams, and the forward power of the Pontypool Front Row and 'Merv the Swerve' Davies. To the land of their fathers, these Welsh heroes represented pride and conquest at a time when the decline of the province's traditional coal and steel industries was sending thousands to the dole queue and threatening the fabric of local communities. Yet the achievements of those players transcended their homeland and extended beyond mere rugby fans. With the help of comedian Max Boyce, the culture of Welsh rugby and valley life permeated Britain's living rooms at the height of prime time, reinforcing the sporting brilliance that lit up winter Saturday afternoons. In Nobody Beats Us, David Tossell, who spent the '70s as a schoolboy scrum-half trying to perfect the Gareth Edwards reverse pass, interviews many of the key figures of a golden age of Welsh rugby and vividly recreates an unforgettable sporting era.

Download or read book Behind the Dragon written by Ross Harries and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2019-06-13 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2020 - RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR This is a complete history of the Welsh rugby union team – told by the players themselves. Based on a combination of painstaking research into the early years of the Wales team to interviews with a vast array of Test match players and coaches from the Second World War to the present day, Ross Harries delves to the very heart of what it means to play for Wales, painting a unique and utterly compelling picture of the game in the only words that can truly do so: the players' own. Behind the Dragon lifts the lid on what it is to pull on the famous red shirt – the trials and tribulations behind the scenes, the glory, the drama and the honour on the field, and the heart-warming tales of friendship and humour off it. Absorbing and illuminating, this is the ultimate history of Welsh rugby – told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.

Download or read book Spikey 2 Hard to Handle written by Bunko Watkins and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mewn hunangofiant gonest, mae Mike 'Spikey' Watkins, cymeriad brith ond hoffus ym myd rygbi Cymru yn yr 1980au yn codi'r clawr ar fywyd a gyrfa lliwgar iawn. -- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

Download or read book The Iron Duke written by Bobby Windsor and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lions legend Bobby Windsor has enjoyed triumphs beyond the dreams of most international players but has also suffered personal tragedy. His rugby career as the best hooker in the British Isles during the second golden era of Welsh rugby in the 1970s is a turbulent tale of blood and thunder on the pitch. There are riotous incidents off the pitch, including unscheduled fights with professional boxers, revelations about illegal payments during the so-called amateur era and what Windsor did to upset the Establishment and become blackballed by one of the most famous clubs in the world. Windsor's irrepressible sense of humour comes shining through on every page, except when he gives chapter and verse on the personal crisis that drove him to plan suicide. The Iron Duke is the no-holds-barred, warts-and-all story of a working-class Welsh folk hero who rose from humble beginnings to become a permanent member of the greatest Lions team in the history of rugby union.

Download or read book Grand Slam Man written by Dan Lydiate and published by Accent Press. This book was released on 2013-01-07 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Wales beat France to clinch the 2012 Six Nations Championship Grand Slam – one player stood out from the rest of the field. A powerful presence on the pitch, Dan Lydiate, the 6ft 4in fearless farmer’s son from Llandrindod Wells truly deserved the title Player of the Tournament. In Grand Slam Man, the heroic Welsh flanker reflects on his comeback from a broken neck in 2008 to become the hero of Wales’s 2012 Grand Slam success. He also reveals his thoughts on the Australia tour, his love of tackling, his life on the farm and his British Lions dream.

Download or read book Centre Stage written by Jamie Roberts and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a nation of rugby heroes, Jamie Roberts has become a legend. Jamie Roberts is your quintessential hard man: a 6 foot 4, 17 stone slab of rippling muscle, conditioned to run hard into other huge men in an arena where physical dominance is the prime currency. Yet away from rugby, he's a mild-mannered and thoughtful man - a qualified doctor with a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity about the world around him. It's an intriguing contradiction. In his first full season with the Cardiff Blues he was picked by new Wales coach Warren Gatland in the Grand Slam-winning side of 2008. He was still establishing his position in the national team when he toured with the 2009 Lions, emerging as Player of the Series. He went on to win 97 Test caps and play for clubs in Paris, London and Cape Town, yet his career has seldom been straightforward. A fractured skull was one of many injuries he had to overcome, and from the start he had to juggle the competing demands of university life and professional rugby. The joy of Six Nations success with Wales was balanced by heartbreak in the World Cup and disappointment against southern-hemisphere teams, while major trophies at club level proved frustratingly elusive. In this colourful and frank account of a sterling career, Jamie Roberts reveals all about life on tour, in boot camps and in dressing rooms filled with once-in-a-generation characters such as Mike Phillips, Andy Powell, Shaun Edwards, Martyn Williams, Brian O'Driscoll and Johnny Sexton. He also shares his views on concussion in rugby, the failings of the professional structure in Wales and the vital role of old-school team-bonding.

Download or read book Raising The Dragon written by Huw Richards and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-07-31 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rugby has held a central role in Welsh life over the past century. In the words of historian Gareth Williams, the game has been 'a pre-eminent expressionof Welsh consciousness, a signifier of Welsh nationhood'. Less than 25 years ago touring teams from the southern hemisphere knew that their hardest games would be in Wales; the Welsh national team was consistently the strongest in Britain. Thats all changed. Wales is now one of the game's also-rans. With only one Home Championship in the past 20 years and little success in the World Cup, Welsh rugby - despite some consolidation under Graham Henry - is badly in need of fresh thinking and ideas. Who better to provide them than the man who was widely regarded as one of the best scrum halves of his era, yet whose playing career coincided with that period of Welsh decline? In this thought-provoking and frequently controversial book, Welsh rugby icon Robert Jones provides a sharply realistic assassment of the Welsh game from the roots to the national stadium, drawing heavily on lessons learned and observations made during his own illustrious career. Raising the Dragon is a persona manifesto for change from a player whose commitment to Wales never wavered.

Download or read book Wales Defeated England written by Lynn Davies and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This line from Max Boyce's 'Hymns and Arias' usually elicits delirious applause in the rugby world. It is now the title of a book which looks at the classic matches between the two old foes between 1890 and 2013. Included are Wales vs England matches which featured controversies, such as the 1890 match when Wales were victorious for the first time.

Download or read book Calon written by Owen Sheers and published by Faber & Faber Non Fiction. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration of the Welsh obsession with rugby from the award-winning author of Resistance.

Download or read book Beware of the Dog written by Brian Moore and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-01-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 2010 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE. Brian Moore, or 'Pitbull' as he came to be known during nearly a decade at the heart of the England rugby team's pack, established himself as one of the game's original hard men at a time when rugby was still an amateur sport. Since his retirement, he has earned a reputation as an equally uncompromising commentator, never afraid to tell it as he sees it and lash out at the money men and professionals that have made rugby into such a different beast. Yet, for all his bullishness on and off the pitch, there also appears a more unconventional, complicated side to the man. A solicitor by trade, Moore's love of fine wine, career experience as a manicurist and preference for reading Shakespeare in the dressing room before games, mark him out as anything but the stereotypical rugby player and in Beware of the Dog Moore lays open with astounding frankness the shocking events, both personal and professional, that have gone towards shaping him over the years. Presenting an unparalleled insight into the mind of one of British rugby's greatest players and characters, Beware of the Dog is a uniquely engaging and upfront sporting memoir, and a deserved winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize.

Download or read book Proud written by Gareth Thomas and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **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. He was a national hero, a sporting icon. He was a leader of men, captain of Wales and the British Lions. To him, rugby was an expression of cultural identity, a sacred code. It was no mere ball game. It gave him everything, except the freedom to be himself. This is the story of a man with a secret that was slowly killing him. Something that might devastate not only his own life but the lives of his wife, family, friends and teammates. The only place where he could find any refuge from the pain and guilt of the lie he was living was on the pitch, playing the sport he loved. But all his success didn’t make the strain of hiding who he really was go away. His fear that telling the truth about his sexuality would lose him everything he loved almost sent him over the edge. The deceit ended when Gareth became the world’s most prominent athlete to come out as a gay man. His gesture has strengthened strangers, and given him a fresh perspective. Gareth’s inspiring and moving story transcends the world of sport to tell a universal truth about feeling like an outsider, and facing up to who you really are.

Download or read book Tough Lock to Crack written by Ian Gough and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2015-10-10 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The autobiography of Welsh rugby star Ian Gough. A double Grand Slam winner, Gough's top-class rugby career stretches back almost 20 years, during which time he has clocked up almost 500 appearances, including 64 full international caps.

Download or read book Little Welsh Rugby Fan written by Mark Williams and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2018-06-20 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A simple story of a young Welsh rugby fan who hasn't had a chance to see a game because his parents are working all the time. But then he meets a friend and has a chance to see his beloved Wales play.

Download or read book Hardmen written by Malcolm Andrews and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher. The ranks of rugby league around the world have been liberally peppered with hardmen. With violence that would never be tolerated off the footy field, the game has always been rough, tough and dangerous. Stiff-arm tackles, headbutts, spear tackles - all aimed at maiming the opposition players - were once just part of the game. But while the thuggery of old has been cleaned up, the modern game of huge hits at breakneck speed is definitely no place for the faint-hearted. Fans in pubs and clubs have always talked about the courage of their favourite sons - men who never took a backward step, like legendary South Sydney captain John Sattler, who played through the 1970 Premiership grand final with his jaw broken in three places, and 'Bumper' Farrell, who was accused of biting off the ear of an opponent as he simultaneously gouged his eyes. In more recent times Andrew Johns orchestrated Newcastle's 1997 grand final success with a punctured lung and three broken ribs, and pint-sized Gold Coast star Preston Campbell picked up a broken jaw early in the game but hid it from team-mates until the final whistle. But Hardmen is much more than a collection of bone-crunching collisions and wild confrontations. As Malcolm Andrews' vivid profiles of the most courageous and colourful dramatically unfold - from those who played on with broken legs in early times to the fast and furious high impact of today - we see both the fascinating evolution of the game and the fiercely resolute qualities that have steadfastly remained at its heart. Simply put, Hardmen captures the unique spirit of rugby league with the greatest collection of ripping yarns ever published in a single volume. I always enjoyed the game more when there was a body or two lying about. It made my job a bit more interesting. - Vince Karalius It was a real bloodbath. John O'Neill got 16 stitches in one of his shins. It was huge gaping wound with blood everywhere. But he still couldn't keep the grin off his face. Father John Cootes