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Jump to navigationJump to searchRugby Football during the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Contemporary Essays about the Game by Bertram Fletcher Robinson by Paul R Spiring (Editor) (view source)
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Rugby Football during the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Contemporary Essays about the Game by Bertram Fletcher Robinson
|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor)
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=432
|publisher=MX Publishing
|date=February 2010
|isbn=978-1904312871
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>190431287X</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=190431287X|aznus=<amazonus>190431287X</amazonus>
}}
The mid-nineteenth century represented the sporting equivalent of the 'big bang' in terms of winter sports in England, giving rise to the development of what today we call rugby union, football and rugby league, all from the same origin. Perhaps due to its popularity amongst the public schools of the day, rugby union for many years claimed the moral high ground, advocating amateurism and an emphasis on playing the game rather than providing a public spectacle. Indeed, the arguments over the dangers of professionalism, which initially led to the split into rugby league from the Northern clubs, continued in union for well over a hundred years right up to the former England captain Will Carling's description of the powers that be of the RFU as 'old farts'. In 1896 Bertrand Bertram Fletcher Robinson, together with contributions from a few leading players of the day, wrote Rugby Football which was the first volume in a successful nine-part series on Sports and Pastimes that was written for the Isthmian Library. This edition is effectively a facsimile of that book, with the addition of an introduction, penned by Patrick Casey and Hugh Cooke and compiled by Paul Spring.
In his Foreword to the book Graeme Marrs (you could almost put together a rugby side from the people involved in this book) suggests that ''one does not have to be a rugby enthusiast to derive enjoyment from the read''. I'm not so sure about that. It's a fairly specialist subject matter and of niche interest and if you have no interest in the game, I would suggest that you will find this less than enthralling.
Many thanks to MX Publishing for inviting The Bookbag to review this publication.
If you want to learn more about Fletcher Robinson (who died tragically young) then the same editor's [[The World of Vanity Fair - Bertram Fletcher Robinson by Paul R Spiring (Editor)]] is an obvious starting point. If your interest is more in the emergence of rugby union, [[For College, Club and & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football Club by Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale]] provides an interesting development from the point of view of one of the first clubs, including an entertaining history of the development of the game in general.
{{amazontext|amazon=190431287X}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=7393747190431287X}}
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[[Category:Bertram Fletcher Robinson]]
