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New!
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The Sports Section of The Independent on Sunday
made
Better
Rugby Refereeingits Book of the Week! Simon Redfern's review said:‘Not so very long ago, rugby union referees were instructed that only three signals were necessary: scrum, penalty kick and try. Nowadays, wired for sound, they indicate their decisions clearly by word and deed, but what has actually happened in some of the more technical areas of the game such as scrums, rucks and mauls remains opaque to many spectators. For these, this book is as much of a boon as it is for officials. And its format, a dialogue between the vastly experienced Ed Morrison, who refereed the 1995 World Cup final, and Derek Robinson, equally experienced at grassroots level, makes for a far breezier read than the rather bland title would suggest. After reading it, you will view any game of rugby in far more informed fashion; you may never become a whistle-blower yourself, but at least you can learn the secrets.’ Click to see Author's Notes and how to buy |
Author's Notes |
Nutshell: Everything you never knew about the game, including what William Webb Ellis didn't do. "A brisk dash through 150 years of rugby - with plenty of humour thrown in," - BRISTOL EVENING POST |
![]() Author's Notes |
Nutshell: A
Player's Guide to the Laws
does exactly what it says on the cover - in the
player's language. “I
simply had to read it.
Invaluable." |
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Better A year after Ed Morrison
refereed the Rugby World Cup Final in We’ve packed
the fruits
of
that experience into 214 pages of down-to-earth conversation
that’s highly
readable, often funny, sometimes challenging. The points we make are
brought to
life in 40 graphic illustrations. We identify the crucial
decision-making
moments in the game, everything from handling aggression to managing
the scrum.
We focus on essential referee skills, such as good lines of running;
creative
use of advantage; fast and positive communication; and putting
responsibility
where it belongs - on the captains. For anyone, at any level, who wants to referee better, this book can help you discover how it’s done. How to get it.
Only
by mail order - it's not in the
bookshops. We're publishing it ourselves,
as a non-profit venture. So the
price is low. In the UK it's just £7.99 per copy,
including postage and packing. Send your
cheque, payable to Torbay Mailing
Services Ltd., to:
Torbay Mailing Services Ltd
P.O. Box 11
PAIGNTON
Devon TQ3 2BF
Prices outside the
UK:
To Europe - £8.50 per copy
To Rest of the World, surface mail -
£9.50 per copy
To
Rest of the World, airmail -
£10.50 per copy
Payment methods
We cannot accept payment by credit or
debit cards.
All payments in sterling, please. We
accept sterling cheques or postal orders.
For overseas orders, we accept sterling
cheques drawn on a UK bank.
For multiple orders from overseas, direct debit
is
recommended.
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Run With The Ball (Published
1984) The history of rugby is
full of surprises, starting with the shocking myth that William Webb
Ellis had
anything to do with it. The idea was cooked up by the Old
Rugbeians’ Society,
72 years after it didn’t happen. This was in the 1890s, when
the working
classes had begun to play rugby. The Society was desperate to prove
that In a brisk dash through
150
years of the game, I think I’ve managed to stampede a small
hard of holy cows.
For example: in its early years, Welsh rugby was very English. The |
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Rugby Union is the only
game whose players actually boast they don’t understand all
its laws.(This
phenomenon wouldn’t last ten seconds if they were playing,
for instance,
poker.) As a result of their slap-happy approach, players sometimes
miss
valuable opportunities (Advantage is the most obvious) and often they
concede a
hatful of penalties. That’s why I wrote this book. It’s a
user-friendly guide to the laws - not
just useful but interesting, even entertaining. It covers everything
from the
demands of the tackle (how immediate is
‘immediate’?) to the mysteries of
off-side/on-side and exactly what it takes to score a try (or fail to
score).
Because the laws keep changing, the book is always updated. And because
players
prefer pictures to words, the text is generously and vividly
illustrated,
showing just where the game can go wrong (or right). At any level of the
game,
there’s an unwritten law that says: It’s
even more fun when you win. Well
- winning rugby starts here. (Why me? Because, in 30 years with the whistle, mostly deep in the grassroots, I reckon I saw it all: the good, the bad and the downright bizarre. Would you believe that, in a match I was refereeing, a touch judge complained to me that buckshot kept falling on him from a nearby game shoot? It happened. Also, I learned a lot as the writer on the RFU team that rewrote the lawbook. Our version, called The Laws In Plain English, shines through the International Rugby Board’s new plain-language lawbook.) |