Mud, Blood and Money

The seismic shift from rugby union amateur to rugby union professional and the subsequent tidal wave which washed over the sport seems to have caught all but the Southern Hemisphere nations picnicking on the beach. The hypocrisy of the "amateurism" that pertained this side of the globe, and blithely ignored by a trenchant administration, served only to throw the game into utter confusion when the IRB dispensed with the Corinthian ideal in August 1995. Ian Malin examines the effects of those tremors in 1995, how some clubs disappeared into the void and how the likes of Sir John Hall at Newcastle, Chris Wright at Wasps, Ashley Levett at Richmond and Frank Warren at Bedford speculated with their millions. Oh, and the agents too.

Malin, who has written about rugby for the the Observer and Guardian, observes the change in the game in England from a number of perspectives. His knowledge of the playing field is impressive, and his book avoids becoming a turgid manuscript on the backroom politics and committee in-fighting of the revolution. Malin travels to places like Orrell, who survived against the strapping Harlequins, to clubs who lost many of their top athletes because of the money being offered even by division two clubs, and to the universities, who found players opting for clubs. He points out how big business has been drawn to the sport merely for a return on investment. He shows how the rest of rugby struggles at a level below this new money-driven feeding frenzy, because what is available goes towards the fat salaries of Michael Lynagh, Thierry Lacroix, Francois Pienaar and the like. He shows how the tabloids have suddenly found rugger page three material and how mind sets have changed. His style is personal, sometimes irritating (needless references to the good looking girls at Harlequins), but confidently written.

It jumps around the rugby map and pulls together a broad picture of what has taken place so far. It will interest the rugby fan, particularly those who follow the show in England.