Bookshelf

Press, 24 August 1977, Page 24

Bookshelf

Something rather more than a useful rugby reference, has been provided in “Rugby” by Chris Rea, the personable Scot who toured New Zealand with the last two Lions teams, as player (1971) and commentator (1977). Produced in the large h a r d-back, Christmas-present-type so popular these days, “Rugby” is a potted history of the game, starting with William Webb Ellis and Rugby School, and following the development of the game in all its outposts. Engagingly written — Rea, for a man of the spoken word, has a flowing and entertaining writing style — it is splendidly illustrated. But therein lies one of the book’s weaknesses. The captions are terribly long-winded, often repetitive and their sizes, and those of the photographs frequently break the continuity of the reading matter. Too often, the reader is obliged to turn over two pages to follow the story through. But that is not the greatest weakness of “Rugby”; that must be the errors of spelling and fact which abound, every chap-

ter, almost every page. Rea’s fault? His researcher? His proofreader?

Who knows, but how could it be a slip of the typewriter to have Fergie McCormack (at least four times), Kevin Tremain, Jack Steele (with the final e), lan Urban (presumably Roger Urbahn), Tanie Norton, Ron Ulrich, or even Billy Wallace the founder of Twickenham? Nor does it finish there. The late Ron Jarden was said to be 25 in 1951 (he was 21); Jimmy Duncan was noted as a playing member of the 1905 All Blacks (he was coach); that outstanding fiveeighths, Mark Nicholls, became “the great New Zealand three-quarter”; and Wilson Whineray’s memorable try against the Barbarians in 1964 was said to result from his runriing “half the length of the field selling outrageous dummies.”

It must have been a run of all of 20m, and included one dummy. Similarly, Peter Jones is pictured making his historic broadcast in 1956 — but he is wearing the light blue of North Auckland after making his final appearance for the union.

Finally, just to get the record straight, Don Clarke did not kick a dropped goal from a mark to beat England in 1963. Brother lan held the ball. And while that famous Irish comedy team of Andy Mulligan and Tony O’Reilly may have entertained their hosts and fel-low-air travellers in 1959, they were not “in constant demand to appear on radio and television”: the visual medium had still not reached New Zealand. But Rea will strike a sympathetic audience in New Zealanders when he notes it was Teddy Morgan who tackled Bob Deans in THAT match, not Rhys Gabe, as the Welsh like to argue. The errors, proliferating as they are, must be regretted because they detract from the entertainment otherwise of an excellent publication.

Close your eyes to them, and even imagine that someone, somewhere, may have called Benny Osler “the evil genius”, and “Rugby” (Hamlyn Publishing Co, Ltd, 216 pp), will make an excellent bedside companion and handy — though not infallible — book of reference. — R.M.C.