The History of Rugby Union

A Game for Hooligans

A comprehensive, meticulously researched history of international rugby

An ambitious project, triumphantly realised

Crammed with fact and leavened with anecdote . . . an utterly reliable guide

Huw Richards has managed to distil the very essence of rugby union history into this one volume . . . an excellent chronicle

Huw Richards has been the Financial Times rugby correspondent since 1995. His other books on rugby include Dragons and All Blacks, which was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

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 brings the game's colourful story up to date to include the 2007 World Cup. It covers all of the great matches, teams and players but also explores the social, political and economic changes that have affected the course of rugby's development. It is an international history, covering not only Britain and France but also the great rugby powers of the southern hemisphere and other successful rugby nations, including Argentina, Fiji and Japan. 
 
 Contained within are the answers to many intriguing questions concerning the game, such as why 1895 is the most important date in both rugby-union and rugby-league history and how New Zealand became so good and have remained so good for so long. There is also a wealth of anecdotes, including allegations of devil-worship at a Welsh rugby club and an account of the game's contribution to the Cuban Revolution. 
 
 This is a must-read for any fan of the oval ball.

Huw Richards

Wales v. New Zealand - 1953 and a Century of Rivalry

'The Bounce of the Century' they called it. A ball kicked across Cardiff Arms Park in the dying minutes of a match between two of international rugby's fiercest rivals. The world's two greatest wingers waited as it bounced towards them, knowing that whoever caught the ball would score and win the match for his country. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks tells what happened when Wales played New Zealand in 1953. The story is written from contemporary accounts and the memories of the men who played that day, including Bob Stuart and Bleddyn Williams, for many of whom the match was the highlight of a career. 
 
The book retells the stories of the two teams and the men who played for them, and charts the events of their lives: how they got to that meeting point in Cardiff in December 1953 and what has happened to them in the half-century since. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks examines the remarkable relationship between two countries on opposite sides of the world, brought together by a mutual passion for rugby with few parallels elsewhere. It shows how their rivalry has developed over a century - from perhaps the greatest of all rugby matches in 1905 to the single-point thriller of 2004 - and looks to its future in the aftermath of the 2005 Welsh Grand Slam and Lions tour of New Zealand.

Dragons and All Blacks

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