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My Autobiography

by Will Carling

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38 · rating details · 8 ratings · 1 review

In this autobiograhy, Will Carling talks frankly about the highs and lows of his rugby career, from the thrill of leading his nation to victory in three grand slams to the tabloid speculation over his private life and friendship with Princess Diana.

Hardcover , 320 pages

Published October 1st 1998 by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

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Feb 17, 2014 Mike Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because I saw it in a second hand book sale for 50p and I thought it would be nice to be nostalgic about my early years of watching rugby. I started really watching rugby in 1990 and by the 1991 World Cup I was an avid watcher of anything I could get my hands on. I even used to record every game and watch them over and over again as I wanted to pay particular attention to the performance of individual players. My heroes back then were Mick 'The Munch' Skinner, 'Mighty' Mike Teag I picked this up because I saw it in a second hand book sale for 50p and I thought it would be nice to be nostalgic about my early years of watching rugby. I started really watching rugby in 1990 and by the 1991 World Cup I was an avid watcher of anything I could get my hands on. I even used to record every game and watch them over and over again as I wanted to pay particular attention to the performance of individual players. My heroes back then were Mick 'The Munch' Skinner, 'Mighty' Mike Teague, Peter Winterbottom and Dean Richards. I think I must have watched Skinner's tackle against the French in the World Cup quarter final about a thousand times. My early seasons of watching rugby totally spoiled me and, to this day, I'm always kind of disappointed when England don't win a Grand Slam every season.

Anyway, this autobiography is pretty much standard fare for this kind of book. As you'd expect, very little that goes wrong is Carling's fault and he's partially responsible for everything that goes well. This is no criticism of the man, it's just how this kind of book works. When he didn't get the Lions captaincy, he, of course, didn't want it. It's that kind of writing. Let's be honest though, Carling was a class player and led England to an unprecedented period of success in international rugby and deserves to have a huge amount of respect as a result. He also presided over the change to professionalism and set the standards that the next generation of players were able to take one step further in delivering the World Cup in 2003.

There's a couple of decent little gems that the current reader can look at and smile with the benefit of hindsight: Carling states that Martin Johnson was a good choice as Lions' captain but would thrive at the national job; he also points out that Clive Woodward (now Sir Clive) was third or fourth choice as team manager and that was bad for the English game.

If you're nostalgic for early nineties English rugger then pick this up and read it. If you're not English then probably don't bother. (Especially if you're Welsh or Scottish - they never really took to Carling did they?) ...more

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