Who Framed William Webb Ellis

Tony Collins is emeritus professor of history, whose booksinclude The Oval World: A Global Historyof Rugby and How Football Began. He haswon the Lord Aberdare Prize for sports historybook of the year four times, and appeared onmany BBC television and radio programmes.

• 1. Who Framed William Webb Ellis?................................................52. Why Is Rugby Played With An Odd-Shaped Ball? ..................113. How Rugby Scored The Greatest Own-Goal Of All Time ......164. League Or Union: Which Is The Real Rugby? ..........................225. Why Didn't Soccer Have Its Own 'Great Split'? ......................276. Why Does Wales Play The Wrong Type Of Rugby? ................347. Why Didn't Lily Parr Play Rugby? ............................................398. The Mystery Of Sherlock Holmes'sMissing Three-Quarter.................................................................459. Unintended Consequences: How The All BlacksKick-Started Rugby League Down Under ................................4910. Did Australian Rugby Union Lose The Code WarBecause It Was Too Patriotic? ......................................................5411. Why The 'First Lions' Weren't The First(And Weren't Even Lions)............................................................5912. Inner City Blues (And Reds):How Manchester Was Lost By Rugby .......................................6413. The Pen Is Mightier Than The Ball?How Tom Brown's School Days Launched Rugby......................7014. Rugby's Line-Out And Soccer's Throw-In:Separated At Birth?.......................................................................7515. Are Leicester Tigers The Most Important ClubIn The History Of Rugby Union? ...............................................80Full book interior_Full book 216pp 25/11/2022 10:53 Page 616. Who Painted The Players Out Of William Wollen's'The Roses Match'? .......................................................................8617. Why Scrums Aren't What They Used To Be(But Never Were Anyway)?.........................................................9118. Leeds United's Secret Rugby League History ..........................9719. Why Doesn't Robert Delaunay's Painting'The Cardiff Team' Show The Cardiff Team?..........................10320. Why Are There So Many Penalty Goals In Rugby Union?...10921. Why Does Hull Have Two Professional Rugby Teams?........11522. Is This Sporting Life Really A Film About Rugby? ..................12123. When Rugby League Was Almost A Jewish Game................12724. How Lucius Banks Became America'sFirst Pro Rugby Player And Rugby's First Black Pro ............13325. Did Melrose Invent Rugby Sevens? It's Complicated ...........13826. How Romanian Rugby Became A Cold War Football...........14427. How Wigan v Bath Showed How Rugby Had Changed... Or Did It? .................................................................................15028. 1-2-3-4! The Rise And Fall (And Rise?) Of Drop-Goals.........15629. Imitation Is Not Just A Form Of Flattery:Why Union Borrows From League ..........................................16230. The Game That Won't Die: Why Reports Of RugbyLeague's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated...................168