My Life and Rugby

The Autobiography

By: Eddie Jones

Narrated by: Sam Haft

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The Sunday Times best seller.

Brilliant, honest, combative - Eddie Jones is a gigantic yet enigmatic figure in world rugby and a true legend of the game.

In My Life and Rugby he tells his story for the first time, including the full inside story of England’s 2019 World Cup campaign.

Since taking over as head coach of England in 2015, Eddie Jones has orchestrated a complete revival of the national team. He has won the Six Nations Championship back-to-back, including England’s first Grand Slam in a generation and their first-ever whitewash of Australia in their own backyard, as well as taking them on their longest-ever winning streak, matching the world record held by the All Blacks.

Eddie Jones is one of the most experienced and decorated coaches in Rugby Union. His career has spanned four World Cups: from the 2003 final, working with South Africa when they won in 2007 and causing the greatest upset in the history of the game in 2015 when he masterminded the Japanese victory over South Africa. Most recently, he led England on their incredible run at the 2019 World Cup, culminating in a stunning victory against the All Blacks before falling to South Africa in the final.Learning from the extreme highs and lows of his own playing career – including the numerous successes playing for Randwick and New South Wales but also the painful disappointment of never playing for Australia – he shows what it takes to be the best in the world and how everything he has learned about the game, both on and off the pitch, has gone into plotting England’s route to the top of world rugby.

Written with Donald McRae, twice winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and three-time Sports Feature Writer of the Year, My Life and Rugby is the story of one of the most compelling and singular figures in rugby. Told with unflinching honesty, this is the ultimate rugby book for all fans of the sport.

©2019 Eddie Jones (P)2019 Macmillan Digital Audio

Positive Coaching

A good coach is one that is always learning and reinventing himself for the betterment of the time. Eddy Jones is one of those coaches his mystique is softened as he shares his love of the game. Great Book

Terrific

Great insight into one of the most interesting, diverse and successful rugby coaches to ever coach the game. Most enjoyable

Good read

I liked the honesty of Eddie's account of his career so far. A must for rugby fans.

Oh Eddie Eddie Eddie

The World Cup might not been going your way but this book was a great read into your life growing up with the Ella brothers and how you love rugby

Eddie Jones Master Tactician and Coach

I thought this was fantastic. Anyone who is interested in the inner thoughts and insights as to what it takes to succeed should read this. It might help to have an interest in rugby. If you follow the game Eddie comes across as thoughtful and very human. He deeply cares about his country, his adopted country and his players. Above all, his love of the game what it stands for and his part in making the world a better place shines through.

Insightful

Good insight to not only the world of rugby and coaching, but the human side of Eddie and challenges in the job.

A must read for the serious rugby fan.

Eddie Jones is the only coach to have coached two different teams, Australia, and England, to have defeated the New Zealand All Blacks in the semi finals of the rugby World Cup. He has had success and failures as a club and national team coach. He was also the architect of the greatest upset in rugby history when he coached Japan to defeat the mighty springboks at the 2015 rugby World Cup in England, his backstory is very compelling. I highly recommend this book.

Predictably Vanilla

I have learnt little I didn’t already know. I imagine his future book, when he isn’t working for anyone will have the drama and real back story we all desire

Too well polished and inauthentic

This book reads like something published by a management consultant to promote their work. I think the most revealing part of the story is when Eddie says that he packaged and sold his coaching IP when working for the Brumbies. I don't think he's looked back since then!

Avid rugby fans will want to read it just because he's lived through interesting times and this does shed some light, but I'll give you an example of the way he tells his stories. Scotland v England 2019 ---> Scotts come back from 31 - 0 down. Eddie talks about how fantastic George Ford was off the bench and what a fantastic decision he made to bring him on to save the gave, we then roll off into a story about Fergie Time and being patient about scoring in the last 5 mins. But the real story there was Owen Farrell's leadership as Captain, as it had been throughout the South Africa tour that summer. Eddie doesn't touch it.

There are loads of these type of key gaps. If you know your rugby and read this, you'll be left scratching your head about why he doesn't mention anything that calls into question his judgement - then you'll remember this review!