The rag-to-riches tale of rugby union's most capped forward of all time - how a brilliant young player overcame a life-threatening injury to make it to the very top of the international game.
Jason Leonard's story starts as rugby started - in the amateur days, when the Cockney Carpenter began playing for Barking and Saracens in the days before multi-million pound business o
The rag-to-riches tale of rugby union's most capped forward of all time - how a brilliant young player overcame a life-threatening injury to make it to the very top of the international game.
Jason Leonard's story starts as rugby started - in the amateur days, when the Cockney Carpenter began playing for Barking and Saracens in the days before multi-million pound business owners and sponsorship deals. His big break came when he was invited to join the England squad for their tour to Argentina in 1990.
It was a tour that precipitated one of the greatest periods in the history of the British game, and Leonard provides a compelling insight into life behind the scenes with England and his new club Harlequins as the personal records continued to tumble.
Rob Andrew, Will Carling, Lawrence Dallaglio, Brian Moore, Dick Best and Clive Woodward are just some of the high-profile characters of whom Leonard has plenty of stories to tell. He also recalls some of the greats such as David Campese and Jonah Lomu, whom he has played with or against on Lions tours, for the Barbarians and in three World Cups.
Once told that he would never walk again after undergoing life-saving surgery on neck, Leonard describes the torment he went through during this period, and how he fought against all the odds to re-establish himself on the international stage. With more than 80 Test caps to his name to date and a career in rugby union spanning two decades, there is no more experienced player in the modern game. With nicknames like "The Fun Bus" and "The Scourge of the Barking Barmaids", Leonard has lived a colourful and at times controversial life. All is revealed in this portrait of an English rugbylegend.
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Hardcover
,
400 pages
Published
December 12th 2002
by Harpercollins Pub Ltd
(first published December 2002)
Sports 'auto' biographies are a funny beast; you rarely get anything insightful, they're easy to pick holes in and if it wasn't for the picture on the cover and those liberally spread about inside it would be difficult to tell them apart from each other.
Credit to Alison Kervin then for pulling together Jason Leonard's quite readable and insightful book. Okay, there's plenty of the usual mish-mash of x, y AND z all being the pinnacle of my career, but generally Leonard's thoughts on rugby and th
Sports 'auto' biographies are a funny beast; you rarely get anything insightful, they're easy to pick holes in and if it wasn't for the picture on the cover and those liberally spread about inside it would be difficult to tell them apart from each other.
Credit to Alison Kervin then for pulling together Jason Leonard's quite readable and insightful book. Okay, there's plenty of the usual mish-mash of x, y AND z all being the pinnacle of my career, but generally Leonard's thoughts on rugby and the ethos of the game are worth reading. Particularly with a bit of hindsight as this was published at least 10 years ago - pre winning the World Cup - and it's fascinating to see a lot of what he talks about coming true now.
Worth digging out and spending £2 on in Oxfam if you spot it.
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