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From Locker Room to Boardroom by Ross van Reenan

Do you know that Kobus Wiese, Springbok lock and 1995 World Cup winner started a successful    coffee-shop franchise? I am a coffee lover and can testify to the quality of Wiese’s coffee.

Bob Skinstad, eighth man and once Springbok captain, is a familiar face on television as a Supersport commentator. Skinstad has taken his experience as rugby captain into the business world. He is MD of Itec Connect Western.

Players like Skinstad, Wiese and other rugby greats like Francios Pienaar, Naas Botha and Joel Stransky have used their time on the rugby field as the foundation for building successful businesses. They are proof that there is life after rugby and that rugby can provide essential business skills.

There is life after rugby if an individual can learn from their time in the sport. Success comes from teamwork. Individuals make up business and sports teams. Diversity joining forces to achieve a common purpose: winning. Strategic discussion in the locker room is not that different to the planning done in the boardroom. Van Reenan translates these business lessons effectively into From Locker Room to Boardroom.

As a management consultant and MBA graduate, van Reenan provides business advice and practical business models. Van Reenan has rugby experience by playing 62 Currie Cup matches for Free State. The anecdotes and examples used in the book, the reader will see that rugby players’ challenges are no different to the challenges faced in business.

Reviewer:       Ulrike Hill

Score:              4/5

Review Date:  12th November 2012

(Zebra Press)   ISBN: 978-1-77022-331-8

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Tackling the Brickwall

Rugby inspires dreams. But, it is a controversial game. Rugby shows life at its best… and worst. Many schoolboys who play rugby understand this. So do their parents.

 

Sometimes the biggest challenges are faced off the field rather than on it. Schoolboys have faced many disappointments. Like team selections or an injury that smashes chances of playing in that all-important game. These challenges make tackling the opposition’s prop seem small in comparison. The brickwalls faced by schoolboys and their parents can be daunting.

 

Rugby is more than a game and Tackling the Brickwall is more than a book. It is about finding the guts to discover the hero within and to discover that it is all about developing the necessary life skills. Tackling the Brickwall is the book that parents and their sons should read to develop potential on and off the rugby field.

 

ISBN 978-0620-45485-8

To purchase this book, please click here.

 

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Extraordinary SA Rugby

The Extraordinary Book of South African Rugby by Wim van der Berg

The anecdotes show the fanatics of the rugby fan whether spectator, player or administrator. Manie Reyneke, former CEO of the Lions franchise was late for his wedding reception. He felt that playing a club game was far more important that celebrating his wedding. Controversial fan, Piet van Zyl, also makes an appearance in the book. He is that little rotund man who interrupted a test game by tackling and injuring a ref because he was not happy with the ref’s decisions.

 

Somehow, the rugby writer cannot stay away from statistics. Van der Berg is no exception. What would rugby be without reminders about how many times the Boks lost a Tri-nations test, how many tries were scored at a game or how many people attend the Easter Rugby festivals.

 

For the most part of the book, it is interesting. I would like to have seen an index at the end of the book. And a final request. Can we please move away from numbers and focus on stories that entertain?

 

(Penguin)
ISBN: 978-0-143-528807

Reviewer:
Ulrike Hill
www.writerswrite.co.za
Score:  3/5
Word count: 238
Review Date:   5th July 2012