Customer Reviews

Rugby: The Golden Age: Extraordinary Images from 1900 to 1980 (Golden Age S.)

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This is a great coffee table book, filled with pictures you might not otherwise see. It shows the rugby that most of us as players know- having to work a real job, deal with the home life and the kids before lacing them up on Saturday afternoons.

Classic rugby in black and white, large format film glory!

This is a great photo book. It's interesting to see how the game used to look: twentysomething men in tweed suits, often smoking pipes, with hair styles that suggest one's grandfather. They hold huge rugby balls, wear huge shorts and long socks. They don't appear anywhere as fit and muscular as today's pros, but they were stroppy, tough and admirable men... rugby just doesn't look like this anymore.

You also get images of some of the greats: Napier, Wakefield, Prince Obolensky, etc. I once wrote an article about some of the old school ruggers depicted in this excellent coffee table book - [...] - read it and you'll get a taste for the content in this book.

Tennant mentions that in the photographic era before modern digital photography the game was depicted differently than today; you can certainly see this in the photos in this book, and it's fascinating.

Qualified recommendation: my wife only paid $[...] for it, not the $[...] plus I see right now. Not sure it's worth more than $[...]...

What a better gift to offer in Rugby World Cup Year? Great pics that take you back to the days of the glorious amateur sport of rugby football. The communal baths were all the players would bathe after the game, the muddy pitches with any signs of grass, etc. etc. This is the sole high level sport that resisted the calls of professionalism into the last decade of the 20th century. Enjoy the Rugby World Cup, the world's third biggest sporting event!

If you love rugby you will love this book. It is a coffee table tome full of fantastic photos from the 1800s to the 1980's. These are not mainly photos of match action, but cover the ethos and spirit of the sport with sensitivity, artistic value, and imagination. For its size and content, this book is a great value. A must!