Endless Winter

"This is a book written in 1993, just before the game went professional. Stephen Jones is the chief rugby writer for The Sunday Times, and has been for years. He realised that the pressure was on the game to change and to go professional to survive in the modern world. He writes this book looking to the past as well as the future; it’s written just on that tipping point, and he is standing on the hinge, perfectly placed to write that book. You get a fantastic insight into why it had to change, which is essential to understanding how it’s developed to the place where it is now. It had to change because the players were not getting their just rewards for a game that was starting to go global – and therefore there were issues like marketing rights. Huge crowds were watching in the rebuilt Twickenham stadium, so lots of money was coming through the turnstiles, and none of it was going to the players. At the first World Cup, in 1987, the game started to go global and became part of the global sporting marketplace. That’s what this book recognises, and it also looks at the pressures on the players, administrators and fans."