Size Doesn't Matter: My Rugby Life: Amazon.ca: Neil Back: Books

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In Size Doesn't Matter, diminutive England rugby union star Neil Back tells the story of his career so far. It's a triumph-over-adversity tale, featuring some full-blooded clouts in the direction of those short-sighted types who frustrated his progress to the top.

An openside flanker who reintroduced forward mobility to the lumpen, though locally successful, England teams of the 90s, Back prompted purists to hail the realisation of Southern Hemisphere-style "15-man rugby". However, it's easy to forget that even as a top-class pro with Leicester, Back was once widely considered too small for the big time. Easy, that is, until you read Back's own account of his wilderness years--when Geoff Cooke and Jack Rowell were picking the England side--and the painstakingly collated testimony of press and fellow professionals that "prove" he should have been in the national 15 all along.

Geoff Cooke and Jack Rowell robbed me of years of international rugby and the honour of representing my country on many more occasions than I have. Not only that ... I found them narrow-minded, unimaginative and downright rude.

With the hefty weight of arguably reasonable recriminations off his chest, Back turns out to be an entertaining chronicler of his career--tours of South Africa with both the British Lions and England, the 1999 World Cup and the Six Nations are all covered in detail. He gives us insights into the workings of winning and losing teams, and straight-talking assessments of the players he has lined up with, and up against. But he is at his most interesting when striking a blow for the "little fella", and targets such as the public school network and the big-money has-been foreign players getting a leg-up at British clubs get short shrift. --Alex Hankin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Brilliant, Sep 17 2003

By

Steven R. Reeves (Lansdale, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Size Doesn't Matter: My Rugby Life (Paperback)

I was unsure of what to expect from this book. Most sports autobiographies are ghost written, but this book has no ghost writing credit and was actually Neil Back's own work.

The only other books of this nature I had to compare to "Size Doesn't Matter" is Mick Foley's pro wrestling autobiography "Have a Nice Day" and it's followup "Foley is Good." (Neither of these were ghost written either.. a fact he spends about 2 chapters discussing in his second book.) Other than that, I've never read a sports autobiography of any kind.

Now, Rugby and Pro Wrestling are sports that are miles apart. Some argue Pro Wrestling isn't a sport, but I won't even get into that here. Foley's two books are genius, no doubt. Neil Back is at that level as well.

The book starts out at his birth, as is most logical. For the first 2 or 3 chapters, he jumps between time periods quite quickly, and that is a bit disconcerting. He's talkign about when he was 5 and participating in his first Rugby match and then is suddenly talking about a British Lions tour, and is then back to when he was 5. This settles down quickly, though, and the temporal flow becomes much better.

You need to know a bit about Rugby to truly appreciate this book, as he doesn't explain many terms at all, and doesn't really explain the importance of positions. But it doesn't matter that much.. it makes it a little bit less confusing if you know the difference between a Flanker, Winger and Hooker, though.

He progresses through his life to right up after the disappointing British Lions tour of Australia in 2001. Well written the whole way. The only gripe I have is that Neil uses too much British jargon. He gives everyone nicknames.. Jonno, Lol, Robbo, Hilly, Catty, Backy (referring to himself), Deanno and so on. Honestly, by the end of the book, I had forgotten who "Deanno" was and had to go back thru the earlier parts of the book in an attempt to find out. He also makes references to british celebrities, which totally goes over my head... but I can't really dock him for that, as this book was more intended for a British audience, I think.

Overall, if you're a Rugby fan.. even if you don't like English Rugby.. this book is definately one to get.

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Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Brilliant, Sep 16 2003

By Steven R. Reeves - Published on Amazon.com

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