Behind the Dragon

Shortlisted for the Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020—Rugby Book of the Year. A complete history of the Welsh rugby union team, as told by the players.

 


Based on a combination of painstaking research into the early years of the Wales team to interviews with a vast array of Test match players and coaches from the Second World War to the present day, Ross Harries delves to the very heart of what it means to play for Wales, painting a unique and utterly compelling picture of the game in the only words that can truly do so: the players' own.


 

Behind the Dragon lifts the lid on what it is to pull on the famous red shirt—the trials and tribulations behind the scenes, the glory, the drama and the honour on the field, and the heart-warming tales of friendship and humour off it.


 


Absorbing and illuminating, this is the ultimate history of Welsh rugby—told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.


 

"A tremendous book. What an array of fantastic characters and insights . . . both laugh out loud and poignant." —Tom English, BBC Sport

 

"An epic story by the men who created legends in the Welsh jersey." —Stephen Jones, The Sunday Times

 

"Punchy, revelatory, irresistible." —Alan Pearey, Rugby World

 

"Ross Harries has written a history book like no other." —Peter Jackson, The Rugby Paper