Do you know your hookers from your haka? Are you a keen sports fan, or do you like to watch buff men in tight shorts running around a field? Whatever your penchant, The Bluffer’s Guide to Rugby is a must-read.
Newly released, this hilarious book will give the reader everything they need to hold their own in a conversation about rugby – from the rules and regulations to the extraordinary traditions.
Below are five things you never knew about rugby – and really should – which we are happy for you to use so long as you credit the book and
The author, Steven Gauge is available for interviews – and there are review copies of the guide available.
Think you already know everything there is to know about rugby? Why not take our Bluffer’s Guide to Rugby quiz – here. If you’d like us to put together a quiz for your publication, get in touch.
Thanks, Ellen
NEW The Bluffer’s Guide to Rugby by Steven Gauge
‘Steven Gauge has captured the heart and soul of the game in this entertaining book.’
James Hutchinson, Founder, The Rugby Blog
For very nearly 200 years Rugby Football has been played all around the world, and for most of those years, very few people have had the faintest idea what has been going on.
In just 128 pages, TheBluffer’s Guide to Rugbygives you the tools to impress legions of marvelling listeners with your knowledge and insight – without anyone discovering that, until you read it, you probably didn’t know anything about the sport with an oval-shaped ball.
To prove author Steven Gauge is not all bluff and no bite, he has laid out his five top things you never knew you needed to know about rugby – and really should:
- For a spot of advanced rugby history bluffery, you need to be in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square. Tucked away behind the grand diplomatic buildings that flank Nelson and his pet lions is the site of the Pall Mall restaurant at number 1 Pall Mall. Here was held the original meeting that formed the Rugby Union. There is a plaque, so it must be true.
- Loose head Prop Jason Leonard once observed in a conversation with Scottish commentator and ex-international Ian Robertson that, after a recent poor run of form England would soon rise again from the ashes, “just like a … pheasant.” When he was corrected he explained that he knew all along it was “some posh bird that began with an F”.
- Twickenham, the largest dedicated rugby stadium in the world, is less than half a mile from the enormous Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. Comment that some of the performances you’ve seen at Twickers would be better suited to the sewage works than the home of rugby.
- Pass for an expert in Welsh rugby by drawing on the work of the comedian Max Boyce. Mr Boyce wrote about a factory hidden underground in the Welsh Mountains, where they dug out the raw material and carved it into outside halves for Wales. So when a Welsh player in any position is having a good game, muse “It looks like Max Boyce’s factory is turning out some new models”.
- In 1977 a group of quadriplegic athletes in Winnipeg, Canada wanted to create an alternative to wheelchair basketball. The game they devised was called Murderball owing to the rather violent collisions between chair, floor and human flesh and bone that it encouraged. Presumably after a meeting or two with some re-branding consultants, it became known as Wheelchair Rugby.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
For more information, contact Ellen Tewkesbury | 020 7183 5015 |
Please get in touch if you would like a review copy - eBook or hardcopy.
Author Steven Gauge is available for interviews and features.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As part of a comprehensive midlife crisis, Steven Gauge found himself as captain of the third-worst rugby side in Surrey, Warlingham fourth XV. In his heroic weekly efforts to assemble a team, he has bribed, bullied and cajoled some deeply unfit and very unwilling men of all shapes and sizes to have a go at picking up an oval ball and running with it.
Steven is hard at work in the rough and tumble world of political consultancy. He feels a lot safer there than at the bottom of a heaving pile of 15 malodorous and overweight men.
ABOUT BLUFFER’S
A five-million-copy bestselling series,The Bluffer's Guides®have been helping people out of sticky situations for over four decades. The Bluffer's mission is to eradicate social embarrassment from this world, and (with the help of their witty experts) they're well on their way to doing just that.
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