Stand Up and Fight: When Munster Beats the All Blacks

by Alan English

The day that Munster, the ragged provincial team from Ireland, beat the legendary New Zealand All-Blacks in 1978 in Limerick, is now part of rugby mythology. This is the story of one of the greatest days in rugby history.

Genres: Ireland, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2005

Reviews

[Michael Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, well reported tale of the provincial Munster rugby team's historic upset of New Zealand in 1978. English has worked hard to get the complete story, and tells it well. The structure of the book is a bit peculiar, sometimes with an oral history format, and other times a straight narrative. But he shares the stories of a colorful bunch, including former prop Gerry McLoughlin, who went on to be mayor of Limerick, and flashy flyhalf Tony Ward, whose international career was cut short for reasons he never fully understood.
The book investigates how members from different rugby clubs in the Munster province--say, Garryowen and Shannon--don't associate with one another, but had each other's backs when they played for Munster.
As much of an upset as the Munster-All Blacks match was, Munster nearly took down premiere national teams--New Zealand, Australia, South Africa--many times before. NZ beat Munster 6-3 in 1963, tied 3-3 in 1973, and won 18-16 in 2008 (thanks wikipedia!).
It's fun to look at the players in 1978 and the players now, and the differences between the two. The players were much smaller then--Irish center Seamus Dennison was like 5' 8", 165 pounds, if my stone conversion scale is working--and all had day jobs.

[John Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

15/20.

[Darragh Kelly]

One of the best sportsbooks I've ever read...

[Enda Hackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very well researched and a great read for any rugby fan (especially Munster)

[Cathal McGuinness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous sports writing

[Grant Trevarthen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who'd of thought that an ALL BLACK Rugby team boasting some of the best players in the history of the team, would be beaten comprehensively by provincial team. Many would say no it isn't possible, but on the 31st October 1978 in front of 12,000 spectators at Thomond Park,in the town of Munster in Ireland. NZ were beaten 12-0, in a match that many on both sides will long remember.
In his book Alan English, writes about the players in each team and NZ who had, for example Brian McKechnie, the All Black fullback, who was one of the very few players of any country to be a dual international, he aso played Cricket for N.Z and was the Batsman on the receiving end of the ball bowled underarm by Trevor Chappell, in the worst act of sportsmanship I've ever witnessed. Other notable players included, Winger Bryan Williams Prop Gary Knight, and the rest of that team all had triumphed earlier, but this was the defining moment, where they found that they weren't unbeatable. They faced a player, Tony Ward, a fly-half,
who would be the difference. As a NZer and a devout All Black supporter, I knew we would bounce back.... over years we have exceeded that.

[Frank Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like rugby and live in Munster, this is a must read.

[David Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, great research and very personal interviews