Willie Anderson: Crossing The Line

IRISH rugby has produced many charismatic figures over its history. None more than Willie Anderson. 


As a second-row playing during an infamously brutal era, Anderson could never show a moment’s weakness or any self-doubt. He played the kind of hard and uncompromising brand of rugby still admired the world over.


Immortalised by his astonishing defiance against the All Blacks, when he refused to yield to their ‘Haka’ before a Test in 1989, Anderson’s place in Ireland’s affections is secure.


Yet the relentlessly physical, courageous and passionate way he played the game is just one small part of the man. Anderson has led an incredible life filled with stories and experiences of all types, shades and emotions. 


Moments of sporting glory interspersed with sectarian tension, times of great happiness punctuated by tremendous loss, long-standing troubles with alcohol and authority and even a period in a jail cell in Argentina when a prank as a high-spirited young man on a rugby tour went disastrously wrong. 


Willie’s story has taken him from a farm in Sixmilecross, east Tyrone, to the captaincy of Ireland, and far beyond. In Crossing The Line he opens his heart and soul like never before to give unparalleled insight into a man and a story like no other in the game of rugby, or the game of life.