Inside the Wallabies

Inside the Wallabies
Author: Greg Growden
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2011-03-04
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1459613376

Dally Messenger, Ken Catchpole, Dick Thornett, David Campese, John Eales, Nick Farr-Jones, Cyril Towers, Mark Ella, George Smith, Dave Brockhoff, Andrew Slack, Ray Price, John Hipwell, Jason Little, Phil Kearns, Will Genia... Herbert 'Paddy' Moran was mesmerised by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. He was also the first captain of a strange, disparate bunch who called themselves the Wallabies. One hundred years on, the Wallabies of today are as outlandish, cocksure and eccentric as their forebears. It is the spirit and soul of this group of remarkable sportsmen that is captured in Inside the Wallabies. This is the real story of the Wallabies from their first games in 1908 to today. It is about the players, the coaches, the politics and the games. It is about the soaring highs of World Cup success and the years when they truly deserved the moniker of Woeful Wallabies. It is about going on Tour, about enmities and friendships, about moments of national elation and player shame. As fast paced as a Mark Ella backline play, as solid as Phil Kearns' front row and as controversial as a Robbie Deans selection, Inside the Wallabies is a fascinating, passionate and insightful history of the world of the Australian Rugby Union. It is a book no rugby fan can be without.

The Wallabies at War

The Wallabies at War
Author: Greg Growden
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2018-08-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 146070908X

Aussie heroes who have proved themselves on the battlefield as well as on the sporting field. Members of the Wallabies, the national rugby union team, have fought in virtually every major conflict Australia has been involved in, including the Sudan, Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and East Timor. Among them are some of Australia's most illustrious footballers. In this book, a veteran sports journalist tells their extraordinary stories of bravery, hardship, courage and human endeavour. The strengths that made these young men sporting heroes are as important on the battlefield as on the sports field: teamwork, athleticism, tenacity, humour and courage. The Wallabies at War includes untold stories from Aussie military and sporting history - not just on the battlefield but from POW camps and even the Burma Railway - and a wealth of experiences from humour to tragedy, and from the depths of torture, injury and deprivation to achieving stunning post-war sporting comebacks. For anyone who loves their sport and their military history.

Major Thomas

Major Thomas
Author: Greg Growden
Publisher: Affirm Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2019-07-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 192597233X

Opinion is still sharply divided on whether Breaker Morant and his Australian co-defendants were criminals who got what they deserved, or scapegoats used by the British Empire. Major Thomas, the bush lawyer drafted in at the last minute to defend them, is invariably depicted as either a hero or an incompetent fool. Now, for the first time, Greg Growden attempts to unravel the truth about the lawyer and soldier who returned from South Africa a broken man. Before the Boer War, Major Thomas had been a pillar of his community. He was a published poet, newspaper proprietor, lawyer and decorated soldier, but defending Breaker Morant became the defining episode of his life. The former 'King of Tenterfield' endured a stunning fall from grace, slipping into bankruptcy and imprisonment. Thomas ended his days as an eccentric recluse, his life ruined by the ignominy and frustration of finding himself on the wrong side of history. For more than a century he has been a footnote in diverging historical arguments. A proper hearing for Major Thomas is long overdue.

Kokoda Wallaby

Kokoda Wallaby
Author: Andrew James
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1742693822

'A great story that is long overdue in the telling.' - Paul Ham 'Rugby is fortunate to have so many role models of the highest order. Stan Bisset is at the top of the game.' - John Eales, former Wallabies captain 'Stan Bisset, like this remarkable story of his life, is timeless.' - Patrick Lindsay 'Stan was a man before his time. His leadership, forward thinking and standards were second to none . . . This book is a fascinating and insightful read and I highly recommend it.' - Rod Macqueen AM, former Wallabies coach Stan Bisset was a real hero, both in battle, on the rugby pitch and in desperate armed combat against the Japanese during the Second World War. As a member of the ill-fated 1939 Wallaby touring team to England, he was a rugby legend. In the Middle East and on the Kokoda Track, he was one of Australia's most distinguished and heroic combatants. But above all else, he personified so many attributes of the Australian soldier: moral and physical courage, compassion, selflessness, independence, loyalty, resourcefulness, devotion and humour. Stan Bisset's remarkable life story is told by former Australian soldier and Afghanistan veteran Andrew James. This is a truly inspiring book that crosses generations.

Pitched Battle

Pitched Battle
Author: Larry Writer
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016-10-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1925307654

A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics In 1971, when the racially selected all-white Springbok rugby team toured Australia, we became a nation at war with ourselves. There was bloodshed as tens of thousands of anti-Apartheid campaigners clashed with governments, police, and rugby fans — who were given free reign to assault protestors. Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a State of Emergency. Prime minister William McMahon called the Wallabies who refused to play ‘national disgraces’. Barbed wire ringed the great rugby grounds to stop protestors invading the field. Pitched Battle recreates what became of the most rancorous periods in modern Australian history — a time of courage, pain, faith, fanaticism, and political opportunism — which made heroes of the Wallabies who refused to play, played a key role in the later political careers of Peter Beattie, Meredith Burgmann, and Peter Hain, and ultimately contributed to the abandonment of Apartheid. PRAISE FOR LARRY WRITER ‘Artful in its arrangement and humane in its spirit … Honouring the moral actions of its protagonists, it also confirms the efficacy of determined and creative resistance to social wrong.’ The Saturday Age

Final Scrum

Final Scrum
Author: Nigel McCrery
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473894522

After the terrible losses of The Great War, twenty years later the Second World War resulted in the death of some of the finest sporting icons. This book honors the ninety International Rugby players who lost their lives. Fifteen were Scottish, fourteen English, eleven Welsh and eight Irish. Australia and New Zealand suffered with ten and two Internationals killed respectively and France eight. Germany topped the list with nineteen. In the same way that the Authors best-selling Into Touch remembered the 130 Internationals lost in the First World War, Final Scrum gives an individual biography of each of the ninety with their international and club playing record as well as their backgrounds, details of their military careers and circumstances of their death. We learn where they are buried or commemorated together with at least one photograph of each player.Rugby enthusiasts will find this book a fascinating and moving record of the sacrifice of the finest young men of their generation who fought in the second worldwide conflict of the 20th Century.

After the Final Whistle

After the Final Whistle
Author: Stephen Cooper
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2015-08-03
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0750965665

As Britain’s Empire went to war in August 1914, rugby players were the first to volunteer. They led from the front and paid a disproportionate price. In 1919, a grateful Mother Country hosted a rugby tournament: sevens teams at eight venues, playing 17 matches to declare a first ‘world champion’. There had never been an international team tournament like it. For the first time teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Britain and France were assembled in one place. Rugby held the first ever ‘World Cup’. It was a moment of triumph, a celebration of military victory, of Commonwealth and Allied unity, and of rugby values, moral and physical. In 2015 the tournament returns to England as the world remembers the Centenary of the Great War. Values of teamwork, respect, discipline were forged and tested in war – and enjoyment of rugby helped men through it. With a foreword by Jason Leonard, this is the story of rugby’s journey through the First World War to its first World Cup, and how those values endure today. 'After The Final Whistle' is shortlisted for the 2016 Cross Sports Book of the Year award.

The Springboks and the Holy Grail

The Springboks and the Holy Grail
Author: Dan Retief
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2011-06-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1770222138

This is the epic story of South Africa’s amazing quests for the Rugby World Cup, which resulted in triumph at Ellis Park in 1995 and in Paris in 2007, while there was heartbreak in 1999 and shame in 2003. The Springboks and the Holy Grail is no mere narration of matches and scores. The author was closely involved in all four RWC campaigns while working for the Sunday Times and SuperSport, and he provides behind-the-scenes reportage on the great cast and incredible incidents that made for such riveting drama. This is a story of human heroism and frailty, of great dignity and patent jealousy that transcends the mere realm of sport. The book contains numerous interviews with key players and administrators, as well as well-known figures who were touched by these campaigns, and provides a fascinating insight into an event which is now one of the biggest in the world of sport. This is a candid glimpse behind the scenes that often reads like pure fiction.