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

From bestselling author John Griffiths. Jam packed with over one hundred years of strange rugby history! The perfect gift for the rugby fan in your family! Rugby fans will delight in this extraordinary collection of astonishing but true stories from the past 130 years, which reveal a bizarre and hitherto uncelebrated side to the sport. Here you'll find, amongst many other bizarre events, the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to play against England, the match in which a team of top soccer players beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, the riotous encounter that m.;Cover; Title; Contents; Introduction; 1871 Dr Almond's words of wisdom; 1877 The first fifteens; 1878 And there was light; 1884 The long disputed try; 1887 A heroic act; 1889 A Maori protest; 1893 When the crowd didn't know the score; 1903 A family affair; 1903 A unique Scottish treble; 1905 Disbelieving sport editors; 1905 The referee performs a solo; 1906 Selectors' cock-up; 1910 Joe's New Year cap; 1913 A game of four quarters; 1920 Where's my shirt?; 1923 Two freak scores; 1924 Three pairs of brothers; 1924 Bronze medal ... just for turning up; 1925 Moment that silenced Twickenham. Cover Title Contents Introduction 1871 Dr Almond's words of wisdom 1877 The first fifteens 1878 And there was light 1884 The long disputed try 1887 A heroic act 1889 A Maori protest 1893 When the crowd didn't know the score 1903 A family affair 1903 A unique Scottish treble 1905 Disbelieving sport editors 1905 The referee performs a solo 1906 Selectors' cock-up 1910 Joe's New Year cap 1913 A game of four quarters 1920 Where's my shirt? 1923 Two freak scores 1924 Three pairs of brothers 1924 Bronze medal ... just for turning up 1925 Moment that silenced Twickenham. 1927 Back to square one1931 French outcasts 1932 The over-inflated ball 1935 All Blacks beaten by schoolboys 1936 Fire brigade hoses crowd 1946 Passport scam 1949 The All Black day 1950 Army forgets its drill 1951 Murrayfield massacre 1953 Did the touch judge help Wales? 1955 The overbearing captain 1957 Entire Welsh XV ordered off 1958 Please can we have our ball back? 1959 Game that started a debate 1961 Role reversal 1961 Mother's Day 1963 Arctic match 1963 One hundred and eleven lineouts 1965 Hancock's half minute 1965 Refereeing history 1966 The battle of Waldron's ear. 1967 The unbelievable debut1967 Referee sent off 1968 The drop that never was 1968 A replacement's hat-trick 1969 Injured running out 1969 The game with a punch 1969 Building site rugby 1970 Kick his chauffeur while you're at it 1971 The greatest conversion since St Paul's 1972 English rugby's first Cup Final 1975 Up your jumper 1976 The referee who forgot the laws 1980 The printer's nightmare 1982 The most famous streaker of them all 1988 A very peculiar sending off 1991 An abandoned international 1991 The World Cup's defining moment 1994 Try from the end of the world. 1995 Lights go out in Port Elizabeth1996 Cross code challenge 1997 England's worst half-hour 1999 Fastest Test try 1999 Upset of the millennium 2000 European fiasco 2000 A helping hand 2001 Gloucester's drop of luck 2003 Our defence is their enemy 2007 Three of a kind 2007 Timed out 2007 A game played by youths and watched by hooligans 2009 Bloodgate 2007 Penalty Shoot-out 2007 Scrape to Victory 2007 Best Supporting Act 2007 A Brush with the Law 2007 Collector's Piece Copyright. From bestselling author John Griffiths. Jam packed with over one hundred years of strange rugby history! The perfect gift for the rugby fan in your family! Rugby fans will delight in this extraordinary collection of astonishing but true stories from the past 130 years, which reveal a bizarre and hitherto uncelebrated side to the sport. Here you'll find, amongst many other bizarre events, the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to play against England, the match in which a team of top soccer players beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, the riotous encounter that meant that particular fixture was subsequently abandoned for seven years, the international match in which an entire Wales side were sent off and the unknown player who was capped for his country due to an administrative mistake. Rugby's Strangest Matches is a fascinating compendium that is sure to amuse and entertain. Rugby fans will delight in this astonishing collection of outlandish stories from the past 150 years of the game. Here you’ll find, among many other curious events, the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to play against England, the team of top soccer players who beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, the day the entire Wales team was sent off, and when in an astonishing turn of events underdog Japan trimphed and beat South Africa (and who doesn't love an underdog). The tales in this book are bizarre, fascinating, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for 2016, this book makes the perfect gift for the rugby obsessive in your life. Word count: 45,000 A curious collection of true stories from the stranger side of rugby, featuring the the Irish international who arranged his marriage so he could play against England, the team of football players who beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, and the day the entire Wales team was sent off