Rugby football Books

Union: The Heart of Rugby is an epic international portrait of rugby through the lenses of the world's great rugby photographers. Conceived to celebrate the true heart and soul of rugby around the world, Union will be both a stunning large-format book and exhibition. Launched in spectacular styl...

In this celebration of New Zealand rugby a number of NZ rugby matches are remembered, and presented with the match programmes that were printed for them. The selection mixes famous test and provincial games with less well-remembered but equally fascinating matches. It includes classic games such as ...

The Rugby Almanack is New Zealand rugby's book of record and is widely regarded as the finest publication of its type in the world. Now in its 75th edition, the 2011 Rugby Almanack records another huge year, including the All Blacks' remarkable Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup victories, the All Blacks...

For the first time, a camera goes deep inside the sacred space of the All Black camp - revealing the highs and the lows, the pain and the passion, the commitment and the courage of New Zealand's iconic sporting team. Best-selling photojournalist Nick Danziger and writer James Kerr have been gran...

"As comprehensive and entertaining a book on the World Cup as has ever been written" Peter Fitzsimons Since the Rugby World Cup tournament began in 1987, its powerful players, speed-charged runs, soaring kicks, brutal scrums and controversial refereeing decisions have gripped billions o...

For the Love of the Game is a celebration of New Zealand grassroots rugby and the people who make it happen. In words and stunning photographs, it tells the story of a great love affair that is pursued in every corner of New Zealand. As one generation succeeds another, children are hooked by the gam...

A revised and updated version of Steve Price's hugely successful autobiography, published in 2008. This new edition will include updates to many chapters, plus additional chapters on: losing the Warriors captaincy in 2010; what it meant for him to become one of only a dozen or so players to reach 30...

Dan Carter is without doubt the hottest property in world rugby. At just 23 years of age, Carter is now regarded as the pre-eminent flyhalf in the game. In Dan Carter: Skills and Performance?a book aimed at the 'kidult' market?Carter will offer tips on playing the game, skill drills and training to ...

New Zealanders have long believed Kiwis rugby league captain Benji Marshall to be the best player in the world. That view was confirmed early in 2011, when he was named winner of the prestigious 2010 Golden Boot - the international prize for the best player in the game. He is the first Wests Tigers ...

For over a century rugby has been New Zealand's national game, an obsession that has helped define a small country and mould its people - Maori and Pakeha. Having a Ball looks at the triumphs and disasters, the amateur code that morphed into the professional era, the game at the local park and i...

Football has Pele, golf has Tiger Woods, basketball has Michael Jordan and, of course, boxing has Muhammad Ali. Rugby’s race for the tag is a little more complicated but the chances are the debate will be over if and when Dan Carter wins the Rugby World Cup for the All Blacks in 2011. Ever sin...

With more than 50 test matches at fullback under his belt, Mils Muliaina is the most capped All Blacks No.15 of all time. Muliaina combines pace and a dangerous counterattacking ability with dependability and strong positional play at the back for New Zealand. He also has the speed and rugby nous to...

The All Blacks are one of the most enduringly successful and best-known sports teams in the world. Rugby people follow their every move and are more likely to know key dates in All Black history than they are their own wedding anniversary. But not everyone knows everything there is to know about the...

Ruben Wiki is the talismanic leader of the Kiwis rugby league team - a 12-season veteran of the NRL who, in 2005, led New Zealand to an historic series victory over Australia and guided his side to Tri-Nations glory. Wiki's story is one of raw courage and genuine pride. South Auckland born and educa...

On both sides of the Tasman, it's been suggested Beni Marshall wouldn't be out of place in the best-player-ever contest. This classic tale of the rise, fall and rise again of one of Australasia's greatest sporting talents, Marshall's rags-to-riches story captures the hard early years growing up fath...

Ever been at a rugby match and not known what to yell out when? Here's the answer to your prayers: Rugby Speak, a book you can pop in your pocket along with your hip flask and pull out should you feel the need to yell out appropriate abuse from the terraces. There aren't many rules when it...

Retired All Blacks captain Tana Umaga is one of the most respected players in world rugby. As the first player of Samoan heritage to captain the All Blacks in test rugby, his story is unique. One of the proudest players ever to wear the famous black jersey, Umaga became an inspirational captain - a ...

Rugby has a special place in the hearts of most Kiwis. While other sports rise in popularity, scratch any one of us and there'll be a rugby association somewhere not too far from the surface - perhaps as player, coach, spectator or mum stoically washing filthy rugby jerseys and disgusting socks. Whe...

"The Treasures of Rugby Union" is a celebration of one of the world's oldest international team sports (pre-dating international football by a year). It covers the development of the game from the moment William Webb Ellis is reputed to have picked up a ball and run with it during a football match a...

The must-have review and record of the 2011 RWC. One of rugby's most respected commentators, Bob Howitt, provides definitive commentary to the stunning array of images from leading international photo library TRANZ. This highly illustrated, comprehensive 136-page review package includes: ...

When Graham Henry replaced John Mitchell as All Black coach, his job description would have been simple - win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. That an ex-school teacher, who had never played rugby at international level, ever came to be in this position is unusual. How he then planned and successfully exec...

It was first published in 1935 to cover the previous season's first-class rugby in New Zealand. Since then it has been published uninterrupted (apart from two combined issues during World War II). Now in its 76th edition, the 2012 Rugby Almanack records another huge year, including the Rugby Wor...

Photographer Fay Looney captures the essence of New Zealand heartland rugby in an evocative journey through the lens. Goalposts frame the scenic landscape, from the sun-drenched East Cape to windswept West Coast playing fields, from the hard pitches of the volcanic central plateau to the majestic vi...

In 2011, NRL fans will have the chance to share in a piece of rugby league history. The game's record books will be re-written, some taken to heights unlikely to ever be matched. Darren Lockyer will celebrate his 34th birthday this year. Of those 34 years, 17 have been spent putting his body through...

Gordon Tietjens is arguably New Zealand's most successful sporting coach of the past 25 years. He has set the standard in Sevens coaching since taking over as national coach in 1994. Tietjens has coached the NZ Sevens team to numerous IRB World Sevens Series titles and, as well, his sides have won W...

 Sir Colin Meads continues to be a fascination for the New Zealand sports public. Whenever he is asked to speak publicly, and that is very often even though he is now into his 70s, crowds of New Zealanders young and old come to hear his down-home ability to tell a tale. With his pinpoint recoll...

The latest edition of the acclaimed IRB World Rugby Yearbook, the most comprehensive rugby yearbook on the planet. With 640 fully illustrated pages of features, stats and records from every major rugby playing nation, since being revived and revamped four years ago the IRB World Rugby Yearbook has b...

Few New Zealanders have achieved the iconic status of Sir Wilson Whineray, who has been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame, the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, and the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. When people speak of the great leaders New Zealand has produced, Sir Wilson&rsq...

This book has a central proposition: that rugby is not sustainable if it continues down the commercial path it is currently following. Control of the game is being steadily transferred from those who thought they owned it to commercial and media interests who see it purely as a commodity. Of all the...

The Warriors - since their inception in 1995 - have always been 'the people's team'. Some say it's because, like all of us, they have had their fair share of imperfections. Others say it's because rugby league has always had a close tie with the blue-collar working-class heroes of New Zealand. Wh...

This thought-provoking book is a search for answers to the vexing phenomenon of why the world's undisputed greatest rugby team can't win the World Cup. It is an in-depth investigation that explores how societal change, combined with the arrival of professionalism, has impacted on the ability of the ...

Wayne Bennett, coach of the Brisbane Broncos, is known as one of Rugby League's shrewdest and most innovative managers and motivators. He is also a man of great compassion, courage, tenacity and humour with powerful family ties. In this book, Bennett discusses what it takes to be a winner, in footba...

This is the first comprehensive history of the New Zealand Maori rugby team, including analysis of the politics behind the side and insights into the New Zealand-South Africa relationship.  The book is divided into decades, with a focus on provinces that were strong at the time. Among&n...

8 August, 1905 A crowd of one hundred braved the sleet and cold to see us off. We stood by with our luggage and football boots, our collars turned up against the weather, aboard the SS Rimutaka, and slowly like a big log wedged then freeing itself mid-stream, our lives came round to port then stern...

The Sky Sport Rugby Almanack is New Zealand rugby's book of record and is widely regarded as the finest publication of its type in the world. Now in its 74th edition, the 2008 Sky Sport Rugby Almanack records another huge year, including the Rugby World Cup, the Air New Zealand Cup and Super 14 comp...

Fifteen years on since it was first published, Old Heroes is regarded by many as a classic in the annals of New Zealand sports publishing. Some critics, in fact, regard the book as the finest sports book ever published in New Zealand.2006 marks 50 years, since the mighty Springboks suffered their fi...

With the endorsement of the New Zealand Rugby Union, this is a book about the All Blacks of a type never before published. It will trace the history of rugby's most notable and most successful team over more than a century entirely in pictures. Drawing on archives and contemporary sources in New Zea...

'I'm not a superhero, I don't wear my jocks over my jeans, I can't deflect lightning bolts with my hand and I'm not likely to be found rescuing damsels in distress - unless they happen to be my beloved daughters Kiera or Taylor.' And so begins Piri Weepu's biography. Debuting for the All Blacks at t...

FINAL WORD is an honest and reflective look at the life and career of a truly remarkable and often controversial leader. With the Rugby World Cup win in 2011, Graham Henry broke the 24-year curse and restored the NZ All Blacks to the top of the rugby pedestal. But while Graham began and ended his c...