KEY POINTS:
The grand old march of year-by-year rugby tour books, which has slowed to a dawdle in these recent electronic days, will surge majestically back into the publicity parade with an astonishing volume called The Kings of Rugby.
The compiler, Paul Verdon, has recently built a reputation for carefully researched heavyweight books on New Zealand cricketers and rugby players, but his latest account of the 1959 Lions tour of New Zealand sets a benchmark for this country's sporting publications.
There has never been a New Zealand sports book quite like this one (1.5kg, 255 pages A4, superbly packaged).
To mark the approaching 50th anniversary of the Lions tour, Verdon began researching his fascinating tale by seeking out the 43 survivors of both the Lions and All Black teams, and obtaining their signatures and personal memories of the tour, which covered Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Verdon was a very alert primary school lad at the time of the tour, and over the years the memories and his patient research have been combined in a pleasantly flowing storyline. Freddy Allen gives the book a special flourish in his foreword, the lay-outs are crisp and unfussy, and the numerous colour and black-and-white photos offer continual variation between on-field and off-field touring lives. Nor does Verdon bypass the occasional quirky trivia.
Best of all, he captures the spirit and speed of the rugby, the gallantry between opponents, the often brilliant play of the Lions backline, the steadfast All Black play, Don Clarke's dramatic impact, the vast crowds at the matches measured against small groups at faraway little stations waiting to wave to the Lions as they passed through.
The 1959 Lions may have been the best side to tour New Zealand. They certainly were a side chock full of champions, and weird and wonderful characters, a tasty brand of mischief sometimes obscuring their high playing quality.
They make the rugby tourists of the 21st century appear as strait-jacketed, overpaid automatons with all their actions and plans designed by a small army of control-freaks.
Many wise people maintain the 1959 Lions tour was the greatest, most enjoyable rugby expedition New Zealand - and perhaps the world - has known. The quality of Verdon's book makes this appear a very sound judgment.
HEAVY WEIGHT
KINGS OF RUGBY compiled by Paul Verdon (Hill-Verdon Publishing) Limited 490 edition. $395 plus $20 P+P
