It is truly the definitive work on the game by one of the great experts on the topic * Sportsology * Readable, exhaustive, grand in scope, carefully crafted, it's a mother lode of material in a book long overdue project * The Epoch Times * Perfect * Shortlist * Rugby does not have the literature it deserves, which makes Tony Collins's attempt to tell its story all the more noteworthy * The Times * Collins recounts the global sweep of the sport's history ... using original sources to cut through myth and hearsay, and revealing an instinct for telling anecdote and detail * The Guardian *

Tony Collins is Professor of History in the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University. His previous books include Rugby's Great Split, Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain, and A Social History of English Rugby Union, each of which won the Aberdare prize for sports history book of the year. In 2009, his Social History of English Rugby Union was selected as a book of the year by the New Statesman, the Guardian and the Independent on Sunday. @collinstony

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