The ultimate World Cup showdown, in the words of those who were there.

From 1997 to 2003 England and Australia battled for domination of the rugby world in one of the greatest rivalries the sport has ever known. In The Men in the Arena, William Hill shortlisted authors Peter Burns and Tom English explore every aspect of the teams’ journey to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, telling the story primarily in the words of the protagonists at the center of the battle.

Featuring exclusive new interviews with players and coaches from both teams plus an array of superstars who faced them from New Zealand, Ireland, France, Wales and beyond, this is the inside story like it has never been told before.

'A splendid re-telling of English rugby's most celebrated story. Cracking stuff from start to finish' - Robert Kiston, The Guardian

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Dedication
• Authors’ Note
• Cast of Characters
• Prologue: In the Morning, I Watched Scarface
• One: The Growing Pains of Clive Woodward
• Two: The Misfits
• Three: Eddie’s Story
• Four: It was Humiliation, Pure Humiliation
• Five: Sliding Doors
• Six: The World is Watching
• Seven: Tragedy
• Eight: Superheroes
• Nine: Clive Begins to Stir
• Ten: Jason Robinson’s Story
• Eleven: Lion Tamer
• Twelve: Cometh the Midget
• Thirteen: Backy’s a Strange Cat
• Fourteen: The Serge Betsen Effect
• Fifteen: Big Del Hits Town
• Sixteen: Mat Rogers’ Story
• Seventeen: The Crown Slips
• Eighteen: How the hell did i do that?
• Nineteen: Trevor Woodman’ Story
• Twenty: What Great Teams are Made of
• Twenty-One: Corné Krige’s Tears
• Twenty-Two: The Power and The Glory
• Twenty-Three: The Cake Tin
• Twenty-Four: Rocks in his Head
• Twenty-Five: Arnhem Land
• Twenty-Six: Brendan Cannon’s Story
• Twenty-Seven: Chosen Men
• Twenty-Eight: The Greatest Show on Earth
• Twenty-Nine: And then there were four
• Thirty: They think they Own Rugby
• Thirty-One: When Jonny met Freddie
• Thirty-Two: Dad’s Army
• Thirty-Three: The First Half
• Thirty-Four: The Second Half
• Thirty-Five: Extra Time
• Thirty-Six: Afterlife
• Thirty-Seven: The Cost of These Dreams
• Acknowledgements
• Select Bibliography
• Also Available by the Same Authors
• Illustrations