Inside French Rugby: Confessions of a Kiwi Mercenary | 
| Author: John Daniell
Publisher: Awa Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $20.83
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1288207
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0958275017
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3330944
EAN: 9780958275019
ASIN: 0958275017
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Written by an athlete who has played rugby in France, England, and New Zealand, this unflinchingly honest and hilarious account looks at the current state of international rugby, in particular the changes since the game went professional 10 years ago. This study brilliantly delves into French rugby—a world where a loss at home is considered a crime, matches can get unimaginably brutal, and players face manipulation at the hands of their coaches, managers, and agents.
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| Customer Reviews:
la fourchette, and other rugby pleasures May 24, 2008
This is a well-written and always engaging book. John Daniell talks mostly about a year with the Montpellier team, which lingers near the bottom of the first division, and is in danger of relegation to the second divsion. In his 30's, Daniell is over the hill: this is his last year. The book describes the matches, the people and personalities, the fans, the owners, etc. If you're not familiar with rugby union, much may seem rather odd. There are the professional leagues: Montpellier is in the first division--recently promoted from the second division. At the same time, many of the best players may be called upon to play for France, etc, in more important matches--so the top teams may be missing their top pros at any given time. Everything is taken very seriously.
The book recounts the injuries. La fourchette means "eye-gouge"--effective and popular. Daniell himself has employed this trick on occasion. The main thing is not to get caught--but with only one referee and often no ubitiquous TV camera, scrums and rucks offer good opportunities. Daniell notes that good sportsmanship is known to the French as "le fairplay"--there is no native French word for the concept. Daniell describes his own injuries over the years--a dozen broken noses, dislocated collar bone, ruptured eardrum, cauliflower ears, and more--he considers himself relatively injury-free compared to many others. He says that at any given time, out of 600 professional rugby players in France (many, like himself, are non-French), about 100 are out with injuries. If you watch rugby DVDs, heavily bandaged ears--from bites, boots, elbows, etc--are common.
Daniell writes well, and has a fine sense of humor. He pulls no punches about himself. He understands that he was never a star, but rather a decent journeyman lock, and that now he's reached the end of his professional career. There are plenty of younger, stronger, fitter pros fighting for the available positions. He describes a former pro whose boss offered him a job filling ice buckets--at 5% of his professional salary. You need to understand that unlike, say, baseball, basketball, and football, you don't see many active players who are even in their late 30's--it's much more of a young man's sport. Overall, there are elements of the wonderful movie Bull Durham here. You're not going to read about an exciting race for the cup, the pennant, or whatever--like Bull Durham, it's a struggle for survival, and being able to finish with some dignity left. Daniell has enormous talent as a writer and as an observer, and this book exemplifies those talents.
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