Lions legend Bobby Windsor has enjoyed triumphs beyond the dreams of most international players but has also suffered personal tragedy. His rugby career as the best hooker in the British Isles during the second golden era of Welsh rugby in the 1970s is a turbulent tale of blood and thunder on the pitch. There are riotous incidents off the pitch, including unscheduled fights with professional boxers, revelations about illegal payments during the so-called amateur era and what Windsor did to...

Leonard’s story starts as rugby started – in the amateur days, when the Cockney Carpenter began playing for Barking and Saracens in the days before multi-million pound business owners and sponsorship deals. His big break came when he was invited to join the England squad for their tour to Argentina in 1990 and has been capped 100 times.It was a tour that precipitated one of the greatest periods in the history of the British game, and Leonard provides a compelling insight into life ...

Scott Quinnell's book is called The Hardest Test. It is the story of how he became a successful rugby player, in spite of having to fight against learning difficulties at school. When he retired in 2005 he continued his battle with dyslexia in order to change both his and his children's lives for ever.Rugby player Scott Quinnell played for the Llanelli Scarlets and played for his country, Wales, fifty-two times. He was also a British lion. He reached the very top of his sport befor...

The most capped England rugby scrum-half of all time, a captain of his country, and a two-times British Lions tourist, Matt Dawson’s career story is a colourful tale spiced with controversy, from club rugby at Northampton to England winning the Rugby World Cup in Australia.The boy from Birkenhead learnt the game the hard way, working as a security guard and an advertising salesman in his formative years, in the days when rugby players found relief in an active and alcoholic social ...

WINNER OF THE 2010 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE.Brian Moore, or 'Pitbull' as he came to be known during nearly a decade at the heart of the England rugby team's pack, established himself as one of the game's original hard men at a time when rugby was still an amateur sport. Since his retirement, he has earned a reputation as an equally uncompromising commentator, never afraid to tell it as he sees it and lash out at the money men and professionals tha...

Lewis 'Mad Dog' Moody has been a familiar face in English rugby for fifteen successful and, at times, painful years. The former Leicester and now Bath flanker has seen and done it all in a sport that has changed beyond recognition from his first forays into the sport to the huge spectacle that rugby, and especially test match rugby, has become.Known for his near-suicidal fashion of playing the game, Moody has achieved as much as anyone in the history of the sport, from league, cup ...

Brian O'Driscoll is the explosive captain of the 'golden generation' of Irish rugby and a renowned genius on the field. One of the top outside centres in the game, O'Driscoll first became captain of his country in 2003 and his phenomenal record includes consecutive triple crowns in 2006 and 2007 and, perhaps most memorably, in 2009 when he led Ireland to their first Grand Slam for the first time in 60 years. Voted 'Player of the Decade' in 2010 by Rugby World magazine, O'Driscoll has risen...

Known as Shaggy to his mates, Greenwood is one of rugby's and international sport's most engaging, intelligent, outspoken and witty characters. A Lancastrian to the tips of this size 12 boots, the giant centre has been an automatic choice in the England XV since his debut against Australia in 1997.A few months earlier he looked set to become only the third uncapped Englishman to play for the British Lions when he came within a whisker of losing his life after he was speared to the ...

The long-awaited autobiography of Richard Hill, World Cup winner and the rugby fan's most admired player.Nicknamed 'the Silent Assassin', Richard Hill is often most noticed when he isn't playing, as somehow his teams never perform as well without him as they do when he's around. This was shown both in the Lions tour of Australia in 2001 and in England's 2003 World Cup campaign. In his autobiography, he looks back across his hugely successful career as one of the la...

Martin Johnson is the towering second row forward who has come to set the standards of what a professional rugby player should do. His drive and physical presence mean that he is a natural leader on the pitch - and off it, too. In this, his long-awaited autobiography, he looks at the changing world of rugby. He explains why he led the England team to the brink of a strike in the autumn of 2000, and provides the definitive account of England's 2003 World Cup triumph, as well as Lions tours ...

In More Blood, Sweat and Beers, World Cup-winning rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio shares his favourite stories from his time at International rugby's greatest tournament. With razor-sharp wit and good humour he lets the reader behind the closed doors of the tournament, to see what happens on and off the pitch when the cameras aren't looking.All the great names are here - Blanco, Lomu and Pienaar among them - and in his time Dallaglio has shared pints or blows (or both) with them al...

As a Premiership, World Cup and Grand Slam winner, no one better embodies the charisma and the colour of English rugbys greatest era than Lawrence Dallaglio. He has some story to tell, not just of the formidable exploits on the field, but an extraordinary life off it. His only sister, Francesca, was the youngest to perish in the Marchioness disaster and her death at 19 remains the great sadness of his life.In addition to this and his much-talked about England exploits, he also led h...