Le Coq: A Journey to the Heart of French Rugby

by Peter Bills

From French rugby's origins in Le Havre, (as an English export in the late nineteenth century) to the Catalan coast, acclaimed rugby writer Peter Bills travels the length and breadth of this vast country visiting not only the big cities but those regional heartlands of the game such as Toulouse, Bordeaux and Clermont as well as clubs in the Basque country, to reveal a country whose deep love of rugby has created a culture and playing style like no other. Featuring exclusive interviews with many of the greatest international players to have played club rugby in France, from Jonny Wilkinson to Dan Carter, as well as French legends of the sport, from Serge Blanco and Jean-Pierre Rives to Antoine Dupont, Le A History of French rugby brings to life the passion, colour, excitement, characters, anecdotes, locations and great moments of French rugby's near 150 years of existence, just as it prepares to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Former French Grand Slam captain Jacques Fouroux talked of 'Rugby; the game, the life': this book will show you exactly what he meant.

Genres: Sports, Travel

400 pages, Hardcover

Published May 2, 2023

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great read for rugby lovers (however, if you’re looking for women’s rugby, you’re out of luck here). Especially lovers of French rugby. He touches on the history of many clubs within France, their most noted players, of the evolution of the French style of play.

It’s also just a great book if you love France - the culture, the people, the food, their passion for rugby. There are even some cool photos. Personally, I’d hoped to see a little about Charles Ollivon, but I understand why mostly Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack were highlighted as far as modern day players.

💙🇫🇷🐓

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of colour and charm about this book, but in the end it disappointed me a little. It calls itself a journey to the heart of French rugby, but it's more of a guided tour that never quite stops long enough in one place, and runs out of ideas. Time and again the same few themes come up:

French rugby is uniquely full of attacking flair
It's not as violent as it used to be (which is probably a good thing but oh! what times we had)
There are dozens of clubs with devoted followers and impressive histories . . .
but the top 14 now have a strangle-hold because they're better financed (and are dastardly enough to recruit lots of foreign players)
The food and wine, and the countryside, are marvellous.

So it eventually feels thin and repetitive and predictable. Glad to have read it, and will watch the French in this season's 6 Nations with renewed and educated interest, but came away slightly disappointed.

[Owen McArdle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite a history book and not quite a travelogue, but it's a love letter to French rugby that incorporates a bit of both of those things and has inspired me to try and go to a provincial game!

[Zaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very impressed by this book. It was a great read. I was extremely upset that France did not win the Rugby World Cup in France, it was upsetting. Thankfully, they have received tremendous experience, and have even managed to defeat the New Zealand squad. It's impressive. Let us hope they are able to perform even better during future competitions. Allez les Bleus! #FranceRugby

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to confess I didn't manage to finish this. Or even to get terribly far into it. So maybe I should recuse myself from reviewing it. But... I'm actually quite interested in the subject and wanted to read this to accompany a trip to the Rugby World Cup in France. If you're a rugby obsessive and not a big reader, maybe there is enough here for you. It starts, for example, with a nice anecdote about a vital Covid-era derby match and what it can tell us about French attitudes to both rugby and authority. But then the problems start. First, let's face it, people looking at Goodreads reviews generally are avid readers and, as such, would quickly become annoyed by the poor quality of the writing. Then, there is the fact that the content is all over the place, with too many off-point personal stories (a number of which, perhaps revealingly, seem to focus on demonstrating just how exciting/dangerous a driver the author is). There is also a weird habit of throwing in irrelevant, tangentially-connected facts that the author happened to know (or looked up on Wikipedia) so that it reads at times like the ramblings of a mad old uncle. There's a particular corker along the lines of "this team in the 1890s had 2 Chileans on it - did you know the Chileans like wearing bowler hats?!" I hope others get more out of the rugby and find the other stuff sufficiently entertaining. The small portion I managed to read of this just irritated the hell out of me.

[Colm · Rating 4 out of 5]

so conflicted about this book, for sure the author's passion for rugby and French rugby really shines through. Against that he comes across as a bit of Hooray Henry and a bit insufferable with the name dropping and car chat. Then there's passages straight out of Alan Partridge. Overall though it's a great book, his love chasing l'ouef outweighs everything else, he does write some really interesting social history and there are some shrewd observations about about the over commercialisation of the game of rugby union

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part travel writing, part memoir, and plenty of history is packed into this romp across France in search of the spirit and soul of French Rugby. The author does much to bring the story alive by naming some of his favorite eats.

You can read my full review here: https://www.si.com/onsi/rugby/world-r...

[Douglas Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful read about 4 of my favourite topics, Rugby, France, eating and wine. I am somewhat biased in my review of this book because of the subject matter but it is a great read. The author has done a great job of taking us through the history of the French game by focussing on the cultural aspect that supports this great game. Wonderful reading.

[Marcus Larsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting!
Very repetetive, they played really dirty back in the day is mentioned 35 times but it really gives you an understanding of french rugby