Good Rugby Reads

Milk

I enjoyed this one:
 
Steve Hansen on the art of coaching
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11559601'>http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11559601</a>

Chris B.

Dan saying very clearly here, what I said all along - not focused on winning for the Crusaders.
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">Honestly, I didnâ€™t care how I played; I just wanted to get through it. I needed to prove to myself that I could make it through a series of games without breaking down. Once we made it halfway through the season and I was injury free, I got to take a step back and change my goals. Now I shifted my focus to elevating my play to another level and making meaningful contributions.</blockquote>

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="547163" data-time="1449804365">
<div>
Dan saying very clearly here, what I said all along - not focused on winning for the Crusaders.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
although he also says:
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
"After some wavering, my provincial team decided to re-sign me. They played me out of position for most of the season, which was tough because I was trying to prove I could still be a fly-half for the All-Blacks."
</blockquote>
 
so was Toddy really focused on winning ;)

Frye

Finished the Dan Carter book over the weekend while I was on holiday.
 
Expected it to be bad. Turned out to be worse.

ulsterman

This may be Kinsella's best article yet - deconstructing Munster's humiliation away to Stade Francais. He was (before serious injury) in the Munster academy, which may explain the very cutting (though not inaccurate) tone:
 
 
â€˜These lads are shitting themselves,â€™ Stade would have thought after this, or after the string of four major mistakes in the seven minutes that followed half time â€“ when Munster should have been playing with confidence and energy against 14 men.
 
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.the42.ie/analysis-munster-stade-francais-champions-cup-2541782-Jan2016/'>http://www.the42.ie/analysis-munster-stade-francais-champions-cup-2541782-Jan2016/</a>

Billy Tell

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ulsterman" data-cid="551876" data-time="1452524865">
<div>
This may be Kinsella's best article yet - deconstructing Munster's humiliation away to Stade Francais. He was (before serious injury) in the Munster academy, which may explain the very cutting (though not inaccurate) tone:
 
 
â€˜These lads are shitting themselves,â€™ Stade would have thought after this, or after the string of four major mistakes in the seven minutes that followed half time â€“ when Munster should have been playing with confidence and energy against 14 men.
 
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.the42.ie/analysis-munster-stade-francais-champions-cup-2541782-Jan2016/'>http://www.the42.ie/analysis-munster-stade-francais-champions-cup-2541782-Jan2016/</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
I have to say I have minimal sympathy. Having lived in Munster, it would be fair to say their fans think the sun shines out of their ass more than Kiwi rugby fans, which is already quite damning in itself. But they seemed to plan extremely poorly for the end of their golden era, then basically seemed to organise a coup to get rid of Penney, with Foley appointing all his mates with zero coaching experience to take the reigns. They were absolutely appalling in the weekend, only their SA import Stander (who may well now wear green) looked anyway decent. It looks a long long way back for Munster.

Milk

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Don Frye" data-cid="548927" data-time="1450773055">
<div>
Finished the Dan Carter book over the weekend while I was on holiday.
 
Expected it to be bad. Turned out to be worse.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
I just finished it and enjoyed it. Perhaps it was because I read it straight after Deans' book (which I hated).
 
Over the last 6 months I've read heaps of rugby books: John Mitchell, Robbie Deans, Jerome Kaino, Cory Jane and Dan Carter's.
 
I enjoyed the younger players' books far more: maybe because I could relate to them better, but I think mainly because they were so much more open than the older guys. I read Deans' book and was hoping for lots of insight into all the stories we've speculated about over the last 15 years, but got pretty much nothing. Here's the thing: it's written in the third person so has no limitation on how much gushing the author can do over his achievements (the other books are written in the first person so there is only so much self adulation kiwi readers will put up with), and when it's not patting Deans on the back it's using statistics and hindsight to try and explain how the things that didn't go well were either not so bad or not his fault. I mean, that's fine, but surely there is at least one story he can tell where he made a mistake? He even distances himself from his role in the Mitchell era.
 
There are a couple of cool insights into his time in Australia, like the confirmation of how hard it is to manage the players over there, the politics, and how Nucifora was trying to undermine him. But I was hoping for way more. Dyed in the wool Cantabs might get a bit more out of it because he's living history in terms of his contribution and the people he has worked with. Nothing but adulation and excuses might work well for that audience, but I was hoping for more.
 
Alternatively, I got a massive amount of perspective from Carter's book. Finally a book that covers all the good, but also the bad: selfishness, arrogance, naivety, mistakes... flaws we can all relate to but none of which you'd expect from Dan Carter. Did everyone know that his 2013 Achilles injury was a result of him being so angry that he didn't get subbed onto the field against Wales that he flogged himself during the warm down and ignored the pain until he wrecked it? Unfortunately most rugby books I've read are too focused on making the subject look flawless. At least this one removes some of the gloss.
 
Carter's book has some problems though, the main one being it's timing. It doesn't really cover the 2015 RWC because it was published so soon after. It goes somehow of overcoming it by having 2015 diary excerpts spread throughout the book that are very insightful, and creates momentum that feels the book is building up to the a seminal moment: the 2015 RWC final. However, the diary excerpts stop with the semi final with kind of 'and the rest, as they say, is history' kind of vibe. So it's a pretty inventive approach to the timing issue, but the truth is that we want to hear about the final and no creative way of avoiding that is going satiate it.
 
By the way, I found Mitchell's book quite unintentionally funny. The way that guy can tell a story as if it's just some funny yarn, but that leaves me with serious alarm bells, is something else. Like when he casually mentions that following a court session the All Blacks players locked him and Robbie Deans in a toilet stall and one of them got a black eye/shiner as they tried to escape.

rotated

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Milk" data-cid="552302" data-time="1452695571">
<div>
Like when he casually mentions that following a court session the All Blacks players locked him and Robbie Deans in a toilet stall and one of them got a black eye/shiner as they tried to escape.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
I think this is why Ted went with two assistants - one of whom has considerable girth. Literally impossible to lock all three of them in a stall.

Tim

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/behind-the-lines/2016/jan/28/roger-wilson-interview-ulster-ireland-rugby-union'>â€˜Jesus, Iâ€™ve got slowâ€™: the pain of approaching the end of a rugby career</a>

mariner4life

That was awesome Tim. Different levels obviously, but i really identified with how he was feeling, in terms of during the game, after the game, and what i miss the most. I finished at the same age he is as well.
 
 
 
I am most of the way through Dan's book. One thing i will say, it's refreshingly honest.

MN5

I've pretty much given up on Rugby books to the point where I won't even flick through them at Whitcoulls. Norm Hewitts was awesome and head over heels above the rest cos he wasn't afraid to have a go at people he thought had wronged him, Peter Fats, Justin Marshall and Josh Kronfelds were also pretty good although far less eye opening but you get the feeling with the rest that none of the former ( as is usually the case ) players want to bite the hand that might still feed them one day. They're just boring.

taniwharugby

I guess people just see things differently too, different cultures, different eras, plus if you've had a decent fist of it, maybe you just don't have an axe to grind, or the issues you did have, weren't ones you felt were worth writing about?

MN5

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="554993" data-time="1454035981">
<div>
I guess people just see things differently too, different cultures, different eras, plus if you've had a decent fist of it, maybe you just don't have an axe to grind, or the issues you did have, weren't ones you felt were worth writing about?
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Yeah fair call and then I guess it comes down to the fact that the life of a sports person, even at the elite level, often isn't particularly compelling reading unless there's a few brushes with the law, substance abuse etc.

taniwharugby

but then the modern sportsmen (well most of them) are all managed and given training/guidance of what they should and shouldn't do, a few still manage to stray from the line and get a bit stupid, but for the most part, these guys know it is a job with a limited shelf life so toe the line.
 
Sure they may cut loose away form the sport, but again, in todays world, they are likely still on guard as there is always some dickhead with their camera out to catch you dry humping some dog!

booboo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="554989" data-time="1454035027">
I've pretty much given up on Rugby books to the point where I won't even flick through them at Whitcoulls. Norm Hewitts was awesome and head over heels above the rest cos he wasn't afraid to have a go at people he thought had wronged him, Peter Fats, Justin Marshall and Josh Kronfelds were also pretty good although far less eye opening but you get the feeling with the rest that none of the former ( as is usually the case ) players want to bite the hand that might still feed them one day. They're just boring.</blockquote>
 
I felt Kronfeld's was a bit of a whinge fest. Interspersed with "I'm so laid back and cool" comments. Made me duslike him where I didn't previously.

ulsterman

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="554914" data-time="1454023850">
<div>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/behind-the-lines/2016/jan/28/roger-wilson-interview-ulster-ireland-rugby-union'>â€˜Jesus, Iâ€™ve got slowâ€™: the pain of approaching the end of a rugby career</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="554916" data-time="1454024949">
<div>
That was awesome Tim. Different levels obviously, but i really identified with how he was feeling, in terms of during the game, after the game, and what i miss the most. I finished at the same age he is as well.
 
 
 
I am most of the way through Dan's book. One thing i will say, it's refreshingly honest. 
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Not so fecking awesome for me - he is a prime member of a back row whose most effective asset is (until the end of the season, at least) Nick fecking Williams . . .

mariner4life

I can relate to that as well. By his age i had been moved from 7 into the world's smallest 2nd rower

jegga

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/30/eddie-jones-england-six-nations'>http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/30/eddie-jones-england-six-nations</a> 
Really enjoyed this

KiwiPie

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="jegga" data-cid="555380" data-time="1454207783">
<div>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/30/eddie-jones-england-six-nations'>http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/30/eddie-jones-england-six-nations</a> 
Really enjoyed this
</div>
</blockquote>
Yep that was fascinating.

Donsteppa

Reminded me of the Wayne Bennett quote along the lines of 'when I stop chipping them, they're either perfect or they're gone - and they need to decide which one pretty quick'. Some similarities there.

The Silver Fern

Good Rugby Reads