Eoin Madden’s having a busy term with friend issues, schoolwork and new rugby challenges; he’s been moved up to train with the Junior Cup team, which is hard work, plus there’s trouble in his dormitory as mobile phones start going missing! But as usual there are ghostly goings-on in Castlerock school – what’s the link between Eoin’s history lessons and the new spirit he’s spotted wearing a Belvedere rugby jersey? ... Historical and modern mysteries combine in this intriguing tale of rugby, rebellion and ghosts. 'Beautifully crafted by Siggins, this is a book that will thrill any rugby-mad youngster while delighting sports fans (of any age) with an interest in entertaining storytelling.' Irish Daily Mail on Rugby Warrior

Rugby Rebel investigates a sensational accusation made against brilliant All Black winger Duncan McGregor that he sold team secrets which cost the Original All Blacks their unbeaten record on the famous 1905 tour of Britain, France and the United States. What made it worse was that McGregor's Accusers were some of his fellow All Blacks. But has his name been unfairly besmirched? This book tells McGregor's extraordinary and previously untold story. In doing so, it delves deeply into an explosive and controversial period in New Zealand rugby history, the early 1900s, when 'shamateurism' was rife and the sport was split apart by the emergence of rugby league. Rugby Rebel shatters myths, offers new insights and provides enough information for the reader to decide whether McGregor was hero, or as his deractors claimed, villain.

Alan Tait made sporting history in 1997 when, after spending eight years in the north of England with Widnes and Leeds, he became the first former professional rugby league player to return to Scottish international rugby union. Once back in union with Rob Andrew's Newcastle falcons, Tait used his international recall as a springboard to tour with the British Lions, a set-up he found riddled with xenophobia and selectorial bias. Tait is one of the most colourful sportsmen of his generation and in Rugby Rebel he tells his remarkable story in typically forthright fashion.

Conventional historical and political analyses of South Africa have frequently neglected the vital role of sport in general, and rugby in particular. This book fills the gap through a critical interpretation of rugby's role in the development of white society, its role in shaping significant social divisions, and its centrality to the apartheid era "power elite".

In 1992 Mark Geyer lost his best mate in a car accident and the subject of much of this story is how that changed his life. Each chapter looks at a vital and controversial part of the star's life and portrays a rebel who was determined to take on all who challenged him and his football beliefs. He tells his story with drama and colour and brings to life many of the influential people in his Rugby career. Includes a chronological sporting record.

Eoin has been chosen for the Junior development squad so over the summer he gets to go to Dublin for a rugby summer school. Arising out of that, he and his new friends are taken on a trip to Twickenham, London, to play & watch rugby. While there, he meets a ghost: Prince Obolensky, a Russian who played rugby for England, scored a world famous try against New Zealand in Twickenham and later joined the RAF and died in WW2. The fourth book in the Rugby Spirit series.

From the heights of the Grand Slams to a near whitewash in the 2000 Six Nations championship, one factor has remained constant in Scottish rugby - its huge resource of characters. Early in the year 2000, Jeff Connor set out on a mission to track down some of Scotland's best-known players, the true giants of the game, and discover whether there is life after international rugby. The result was 40 exclusive interviews and a book that is enlightening, hilarious and moving in equal measure. There are rare and extended interviews with Ken Scotland, Jim Telfer, Ian McLauchlan, Sandy Carmichael and Andy Irvine. There is the Hawick humour of Jim Renwick, the history of Finlay Calder's greatest wind-ups and the emotive story of Gordon Brown's battle with his most vicious opponent of them all, cancer. Bruce Hay's confrontation with the Duke of Edinburgh, Iain Paxton's disgust at the attitude of some English players on a British Lions tour and David Leslie's fearsome pre-match preparations are all vividly described, along with frankly expressed views from active modern-day players like Gregor Townsend. All rugby fans will find something to treasure in Giants of Scottish Rugby.

This multivolume set is much more than a collection of essays on sports and sporting cultures from around the world: it also details how and why sports are played wherever they exist, and examines key charismatic athletes from around the world who have transcended their sports. • Nearly 900 entries cover most aspects of sport from around the world • Contributions from more than 200 distinguished scholars, such as Mark Dyreson, Henning Eichberg, Malcolm MacLean, S.W. Pope, and Rob Ruck • Entries on players, stadiums, arenas, famous games and matches, major scandals, and disasters • Lists of Olympic medalists for all events since 1896 as well as lists of winners of major events such as the FIFA World Cup and MLB World Series • Further reading selections provide direction for in-depth analysis of each event, sport, personality, or issue discussed

This text looks at how an understanding of rugby can provide insight into what it has meant to "be a man" in societies influenced by the ideals of Victorian upper and middle classes. It shows that rugby has been a means of promoting male exclusivity, but also been a means of cultural incorporation.

Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2014 Spectator sport is living, breathing, non-stop theatre for all. Focusing on spectator sports and their accompanying issues, tracing their origins, evolution and impact, inside the lines and beyond the boundary, this book offers a thematic history of professional sport and the ingredients that magnetise millions around the globe. It tells the stories that matter: from the gladiators of Rome to the runners of Rift Valley via the innovator-missionaries of Rugby School; from multi-faceted British exports to the Americanisation of professionalism and the Indianisation of cricket. Rob Steen traces the development of these sports which captivate the turnstile millions and the mouse-clicking masses, addressing their key themes and commonalities, from creation myths to match fixing via race, politics, sexuality and internationalism. Insightful and revelatory, this is an entertaining exploration of spectator sports' intrinsic place in culture and how sport imitates life – and life imitates sport.

Since it’s first publication, Rugby’s Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England’s northern working class. Tony Collins’ analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history – about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league’s failure to establish itself in Wales. Rugby’s Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues – issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain’s social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.