Rugby's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from Over a Century of Rugby

by John Griffiths

Rugby fans will delight in this extraordinary collection of astonishing true stories from the past 130 years, which reveal a bizarre side to the sport hitherto uncelebrated. Here you'll find the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to qualify for leave of absence to play against England, the match in which a team of top soccer players beat their rugby counterparts literally at their own game, the riotous encounter that led to a seven-year lapse in the fixture, the international where an entire Wales side were sent off, and the unknown who played for his country due to an administrative mistake.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, History

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is just 250 pages of shitting on the Welsh and the French.

I love that.

[Gareth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining chronological collection of the weird and wonderful events that have graced rugby pitches across the world since the inception of the game to the start of this millennium. Some I knew, many I did not - all are recounted with a humorous and compelling style.
A fine book for a rugby union fan.

[Colin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor imitation of Cricket's Strangest Matches and Football's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from Over a Century of Football. Almost all stories come from northern hemisphere international matches and they're not very 'extraordinary.'

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chronological collection of Union highlights, lowlights, highly memorable, instantly forgettable events in the games history from 1871 to 2010. A similar compendium to Iain Spragg's 'The Reduced History of Rugby' but I think John Griffiths' collection just shades it, with its seventy six interesting anecdotes.

[Tonarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny stories about rugby and actually true (it says, I wasn't there to check). It's well written with short chapters per 'strange item' and it's in chronical order.

[Rob Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing stories from the early history of rugby to modern professionalism. A decent read you can pick up and down at will. Put it on the toilet bookshelf.