Kirjahaku

Mick Shoebottom was the type of play every Rugby League side wants in its ranks. Tough, durable, fast, skilful and with an incredible will to win, he was the ultimate players' player in the toughest of team sports. Hunslet-born, he was an integral part of the great Leeds side which swept all before them in the late 1960s and early '70s, becoming the first and only player in the code's history to represent his country in Test matches in four different starting positions, such was his value and versatility.A key member of the last Great Britain side to win the Ashes in Australia in 1970, he went on two tours and won every domestic medal available until tragedy struck and he was grievously injured scoring perhaps the most infamous try witnessed at his beloved Headingley. This is the story of his remarkable career, illustrated with around 100 images and mementoes taken from his scrapbooks and featuring reminiscences from a number of his former teammates.The sixth book written about the Leeds club by Phil Caplan and with a foreword by Alan Smith and John Atkinson, it commemorates what would have been the sixtieth birthday of one of Rugby League's true greats.

In March 1996, 100 years after its formation, Rugby League - traditionally pigeonholed as a northern English, industrial, working-class game - undertook the biggest re-branding exercise seen in modern sport, with a switch to a summer season and the formation of a twelve-team Super League, including the introduction of a European element. Ten seasons later, a third consecutive sell-out crowd at Old Trafford acclaimed Bradford Bulls as Grand Final winners, bringing a decade of unprecedented change and wholesale transformation to a successful close.In an extensive, unique analysis, the roots behind this radical conversion are explored, looking at the historical context and the business imperatives that govern top-level sport in the modern era. The authors - who have written and broadcast extensively about the code - plot the key elements from both on and off the field in what is a remarkable and controversial story.With extensive contributions from Rugby League Executive Chairman Richard Lewis, Sky Sports Managing Director Vic Wakeling, Super League Board member Gary Hetherington and top player Brian McDermott, this is a fascinating, in-depth look at the re-birth of a game with arguably the proudest professional heritage in the world.