What is the best and worst book on Irish rugby you have read ??

wexfordia

Brendan Fanning's 'From There To Here' is my favourite. I thought it is a well written and interesting book, chronicling Irish rugby turning professional. If you haven't read the book I'd recommend it.As for the worst, that has to be Munster Rugby: the phenomenon by Eoin Murphy. I bought it for a relative at Christmas 2006. Essentially it was just going on about how great Munster are and making jibes at Leinster. I think there is a section in the book with a Munster fan from Offaly sharing his thoughts and informing everybody that he tried to support Leinster for a while but the constant disappointment and ross o'carroll kelly types made it unbearable !:D

totallegend

Winter Colours by Donald McRae is a great read; a bit Southern Hemisphere in focus but it's a great study of how rugby has changed in the last 20 years. Honourable mention to Trevor Brennan.

The list of nominees for worst book is long and inglorious:
ROG's book - did this win an award? No real insight into the man himself or any new takes on any of the key events in his career.
Bernard Jackman - one chapter on winning the Heineken Cup, about 7 chapters on falling out with Cheika.
Leinster; Conquering Europe - a rush job, no content, a few nice pictures...

Edit: sorry, "winter colours" is about rugby in general and not just Irish rugby, my bad.

PhatPiggins

Paddy Johns - "The Quiet Enforcer" a book so bad that not even the flames in my stove would take to it.

SomeFool

All excellent books imo. Books like Jackmans, Quinnys, Rog's are basic and poor by comparison. Moss Keanes would be the pick of the bunch for me.

phog

SomeFool wrote: »

All excellent books imo. Books like Jackmans, Quinnys, Rog's are basic and poor by comparison. Moss Keanes would be the pick of the bunch for me.

I enjoyed all three as well though Trevor seemed to blame everyone bar himself for all his ills, also, while not a rugby book in itself and not a fan of George Hook but his book was a great read.

crisco10

Confessions of a rugby mercenary by john (?) danielli is a great read.

It basically follows a journeyman lock from new zealand for a year. A very different read from the biographies that tend to go, "We played that match, we won. We played the final and won. I felt good."

hsbc

crisco10 wrote: »

Confessions of a rugby mercenary by john (?) danielli is a great read.

It basically follows a journeyman lock from new zealand for a year. A very different read from the biographies that tend to go, "We played that match, we won. We played the final and won. I felt good."

Reminds me of Mick Galweys bio(although in his case he lost the final) - a really awful book.

GerM

Moss Keane's book is superb. You come away with a sense of respect of his achievements despite the book being self-deprecating in its tone which is typical of the man. It's humorous and entertaining from start to finish. Worst would have to be the current players or recently retired. ROG and Jackman's are top of the list with Jackman's effort ahead by a nose. Sold on the basis of a couple of juicy inside stories with 200 pages of boredom to pad it out. We get it...you don't like Cheika.

hardCopy

totallegend wrote: »

Leinster; Conquering Europe - a rush job, no content, a few nice pictures...
.

I was disappointed with that one as well.

I read the Alan English Grand Slam book the same day which was much more revealing. It actually gave a bit of insight into players feelings about EOS and about being dropped during the tournament and how the camp came together after the Autumn Internationals.

bamboozle

Brendan Fannings book was excellent, definately the best rugby book i've read.
Still not sure if i liked Jackmans, plenty of meat to it but he mentioned very little about Clontarf and Connacht which had major roles in his rugby career but i guess his book was targetted at the Leinster fanbase.
the Leinster book from the HC win was poor, however i got a copy which the players signed their favourite picture so its deadly.
Brennans and EOS's books are similar in that every chapter seems to end the same 'and then we went to the pub and had a sign song' 'and then i fell out with him and we never spoke again'

ROG's book was tripe i thought.

Neil Back's autobiography is excellent, great focus on the training and demands of the modern rugby player.

myflipflops

I found the Alan English Grand Slam book excellent too. It really captured the the event well.

phog wrote: »

while not a rugby book in itself and not a fan of George Hook but his book was a great read.

Absolutely agree with this. I'm also not a huge fan of him or sports autobiographies as a whole but found it a very good read. Most people doing autobiographies talk about being 'honest' but really mean that they will slate a few teammates, tell a few private anecdotes and give their side of certain stories. Hook was 100% honest (and frankly brutal at times) about himself.

RuggieBear

"endless winter" about the 1993 lions tour was a good read.

theKramer

Loved the Grand Slam book. Really gave a good insight into how the players felt at key moments of the games.
The book for the Munster 2006 Heineken Cup win was class as well. Also done by Alan English.
The book for the Munster 2008 Heineken Cup win, however was absolute muck. Written by Charlie Mulqueen, who writes for the Irish Examiner. Just consisted of Munster won coz they are great. Only read about 20 pages as it was utter sh!te.

hardCopy

Slightly off topic but if you're looking outside of Irish rugby, check out Austin Healy's Me And My Mouth.

Very funny in parts and a great read.

wixfjord

Lot of candidates for worst! Jackmans, BOD's and of course ROGS come to mind.

Best, I quite like Hook's book, though it's not all rugby based, and the Moss Keane one is fantastic.

Teferi

In BOD We Trust. Jaysus, it's some piece of crap. Hopefully the next biography written about the man is good.

I read a history of the lions tour. It's a smashing read and goes through the history from the very start with a good few stories in it. I can't remember the exact name but it was a great little book. I think it is reissued every few years with updates of the preceding tour, most likely around the time of the upcoming tour.

cp

Went into Eason's last Christmas to buy a rugby book for a family member and staring at me from the top shelf were Jackman's and Quinny's...

AFAIK one was called "Blue blood" and the other "Red blood"!

Knew instantly I'd made the right decision when I bought Moss Keane's one instead:cool:

irishbucsfan

Willie John McBride's autobiography is a great read, surprised it's not mentioned here.

phog

Books like ROGs, BODs and other current players are really only for the fans, they're usually not great books but give the fans someting to rave about especially after an epic journey like a Loins Tour, a H/C win or in Galwey's case a loss. They probably appeal more to the fans that travelled to the games than to the general public.

HeisenbergBB

ROG's book was terrible! And I would consider myself a big fan of his.

CatFromHue

phog wrote: »

Books like ROGs, BODs and other current players are really only for the fans, they're usually not great books but give the fans someting to rave about especially after an epic journey like a Loins Tour, a H/C win or in Galwey's case a loss. They probably appeal more to the fans that travelled to the games than to the general public.

you're right. if any of bod's, rog's, jackmans, quinlans, brennans, eddie o sullivans and foleys were about ice hockey as opposed to rugby i'd have quit after 20 pages.

of all the current players books i think foley's is the best as it covers the amateur to pro transtition quite well.

I expected alot in jackmans book about the amateur game, his time in sale and his time in connacht but it was very light on these things.

colman1212

Stand up and fight - when munster beat the all blacks was the best rugby book I read.

Everyone seems to think ROG's book was tripe but I actually really enjoyed it.
Loved the story where paul o'connell tries to go surfing during the 03 world cup in Oz...!

Also enjoyed lawerence d'allaglios book and thought qunnies book was worth reading..

Tried to read BOD's book but it was just so boring I stopped reading, hope he does a proper book when he retires..does the man no justice...

Brian P

Anybody any idea what kind of money an Irish rugby book makes for the author?