Inside the Wallabies: The Real Story, the Players, the Politics and the Games from 1908 to Today

by Greg Growden

Take a warts and all look behind the scenes at the mighty Wallabies from their first tour in 1908 until today  Herbert Paddy Moran was mesmerized by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. He was also the first captain of a strange, disparate bunch who called themselves the Wallabies. One hundred years on the Wallabies of today are as outlandish, cocksure, and eccentric as their forebears. This is the real story of the Wallabies. It's about the players, the coaches, the politics, and the games. It's about the soaring highs of World Cup success and the years of when they truly deserved the moniker of Woeful Wallabies. As fast paced as a Mark Ella backline play and as solid as Phil Kearns' front row, The Wallabies is a fascinating, passionate, and insightful history of the world of the Australian Rugby Union.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Greg Growden (c. 1960 – 14 November 2020) was an Australian sports journalist, author and biographer.

Growden grew up on his family's rice farm in the Riverina. He joined the Sydney Morning Herald in early 1978 soon after leaving school. He was chief rugby union correspondent for the paper from 1987 to 2012, and was the Australian rugby union correspondent for ESPN from 2012 to 2018. He is one of just two international rugby writers to cover all of the first eight World Cups.

He died of cancer on 14 November 2020. - wikipeadia

Reviews

[Tony Senanayake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating ride through the history of the Australian Wallaby rugby team, from its formation through to the early 2010s. The author dives into the game behind the games. As something of a rugby tragic, I particularly enjoyed the stories behind the 1991 and 1999 World Cup winning campaigns.

Unfortunately, the writing is poor and the first half of the book tends to drag through a lot of names and dates. The book could have used a greater overarching narrative to bring the stories to life.