Product Description

Through intimate interviews with the sport's greatest contemporary icons, Donald McRae examines how rugby is played and revered in different countries. In this new and updated edition of a sporting classic, Martin Johnson, Brian O'Driscoll, Jonny Wilkinson, Sean Fitzpatrick, Francois Pienaar, Jonah Lomu and Gregor Townsend are just some of the stars who help McRae reveal the distinctive colours and cultures of world rugby.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53925 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 483 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Donald McRae visits the training camp of the New Zealand All Blacks near the beginning of this engrossing journey through the personalities, cultures and politics of world rugby. Before he has even introduced us to his legendary hosts, McRae makes sure we understand their violence and power:

A new scrum machine glistened in the sunlight. The huge contraption, so silently monstrous only thirty minutes earlier, had been reduced to a quivering chorus of squeaks and hisses. It had been subjected to a terrible grinding. Feather slivers of foam floated above it, separated from their casing by the battering. You could not miss the deep and wide indentations the three-headed front row had formed in the sighing leather cushions.

Winter Colours is a bravura performance. McRae travels beyond his passion for his native South African Springboks and away from his adopted London home. He appears equally assured in the living rooms of some of the sport's great personalities--Lawrence Dallaglio, Jonah Lomu and James Small, among a long list--or exploring the machinations of its exasperating politicians. He takes us from the sometimes-shocking violence of front-row forwards ("Fitzpatrick took out his mouthguard, spat out three teeth and the slipped the suddenly crimson shield back") to the electric, beautiful running of backs such as Christian Cullen. --Chris Bunting

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Customer Reviews

A simply wonderful book
Not simply because it is a book about a sport with which I am obsessed, but because Mcrae is an excellent exponent of the twin pillars of both story-telling and the english language. His personal journey from accepting apartheid to liberal student is as compelling as Fitzpatrick's front-row negotiating skills

Best book on Rugby I have ever read
Donald McRae manages to communicate the specifics of Rugby in every playing country in the world. You come out of it understanding the game better and loving it more than ever.

What an book!
A big thumbs up to the author, Donald McRae. This is one of the best sporting books I have ever read. Every household who have even the slightest passion for the great game should have a copy. If I could I would give it 10 stars.