The Oval World is the first full-length history of rugby on a world scale - from its origins in the village-based football games of medieval times up to the globalised sport of the twenty-first century, now played in well over 100 countries.Rugby has always been a sport with as much drama off the field as on it. For every thrilling last-minute Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal to win the world cup or Jonah Lomu rampage down the touchline for a try, there has been a split, a feud or a controversy. This is the story of how a game played in an obscure English public school became the winter sport of the British Empire, spread to France, Argentina, Japan and the rest of the world and commanded a global television audience of over four billion for the last world cup final. And how American football - and other games such as Australian, Canadian and Gaelic football - emerged from rugby and highlight just how much the modern gridiron game owes to its English cousin. Featuring the great moments in the game's history and its great names - such as Jonah Lomu, David Duckham, Serge Blanco, Billy Boston and David Campese alongside Rupert Brooke, King George V, Boris Karloff, Charles de Gaulle and Nelson Mandela - The Oval World investigates just what it is about rugby that enables it to survive and thrive in countries with very different traditions and cultures.This is the definitive world history of a truly global rugby.

List of AbbreviationsIntroduction: A Boy and an Oval BallPart I: Kick-off1 The Tradition2 A School Called Rugby3 What Tom Brown Did Next4 Rugby's Great SplitPart II: Towards Five Nations5 Scotland: 'Rugby Football: The Real Game of the Two Countries'6 Ireland: A National Identity7 Wales: The Dragon's Embrace8 France: The Baron, The Red Virgin and Rugby's Belle EpoquePart III: Making a Rugby World9 New Zealand: All Blacks in the Land of the Long White Cloud10 South Africa: From Gog's Game to Springboks11 Australia: Wallaroos and Kangaroos12 From Rugby to Gridiron: Th e United States and CanadaPart IV: Golden Years Amidst the Gathering Storm13 Harold Wagstaff and the Phantoms of Baskerville14 British Rugby Before 1914: Stoop to Conquer15 A Greater Game? Rugby and the First World WarPart V: Challenge and Change in the Interwar Years16 All Blacks versus Springboks: Battle for the World17 Rugby de Muerte, à Treize and à la Vichy18 Britain's Rush to Rugby19 Leagues Apart: 1919 - 3920 Rugby in the Second World WarPart VI: Rugby's New Horizons21 European Rugby and the Rise of Italy22 Argentina and South America: Rugby on a Soccer Continent23 Empire of the Scrum: Japan, Asia and Africa24 Big Hits from the South Pacific: Fiji, Tonga and Samoa25 The USA and Canada: Rugby's North American Dream26 Women Will Hold Up Half the GamePart VII: Tradition and Transformation27 Springboks, All Blacks and the Politics of Rugby28 Gentlemen and Players: Wales and England 1945-9529 Bravehearts, Tigers and Lions: Scotland and Ireland in the Post-war Years30 The France That Wins...31 Rugby League: A People's Game in a Television Age32 Rugby's Road to 1995Part VIII Into the 21st Century33 Shrinking World, Global Oval Conclusion: The Soul of the GameNotesIndex