: Maggie Alphonsi, Gavin Mairs
: Maggie Alphonsi: Winning the Fight My Autobiography
: Polaris
: 9781915359025
: 1
: CHF 14.10
:
: Biographien, Autobiographien
: English
: 320
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Shortlisted for the Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year Maggie Alphonsi is not only a national sporting icon, the face of international women's rugby and star player of the England side that won the World Cup in 2014. She is also an inspirational and totemic figure who transcends sport.  The compelling story of her life makes her achievements even more extraordinary. Hers is an against-all-the-odds tale, becoming the best player in the world despite having to battle against racism, sexism, and prejudice. It is a book forged from the raw emotion, passion, and testimony of an iconic player, who rose to the elite of world sport when the world was seemingly stacked against her. It is a moving and revealing story of a woman who was not prepared to be defined by anyone but herself and gives the reader a unique insight into how she met her goals. 'Maggie has changed the way the game is played forever' - The Sunday Times

Maggie Alphonsi is a national sporting icon, the face of international women's rugby and star player of the England side that won the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014. She is also an experienced and highly thought of public speaker, regularly delivering to a vast array of audiences, from large corporate businesses to event days, or going into schools to inspire the next generation.

PROLOGUE

I could tell from the look in Owen Farrell’s eyes that he wasn’t going to pass the ball. He may have been just eighteen years old, but the future captain of the England men’s team already looked the part, sporting a Justin Bieber-style floppy quiff. I’m sure he regrets it now. But even back then he had an aura about him. Everyone knew that his father was Andy Farrell, the rugby league legend who’d decided to finish his playing career in rugby union, for Saracens and briefly for England. But Farrell junior was the future now. And he knew it.

His teammates no doubt probably thought he was a bit up himself, but I could tell his overly confident demeanour wasn’t misplaced. He was a player going places, and quickly. And he had no intention of letting me get in his way. It didn’t matter to him that he was training against a woman – he quite rightly saw me as nothing more than an opposition player with a weakness that he would find and ruthlessly exploit. All he needed to do was make the pass, but I think when he saw that I was the defender he thought: ‘I’m just going to run at her.’

I knew who his dad was too. But, on that freezing Tuesday night at the University of Hertfordshire grounds in Hatfield, I knew I only had one job. Ringing in my head was the phrase I’d heard, over and over again, from Geoff Richards, a tough-talking former Australia full-back who had been instrumental at the start of my international playing career during his time as head coach of the England women’s side: ‘Make the f**king tackle, Maggie; make the f**king tackle.’

****

If I knew who Owen’s dad was, he certainly didn’t know anything about me.Why would he?

It was March 2009 and Farrell was the rising star in the Saracens academy that was being compared to rugby union’s equivalent of Manchester United’s legendary Class of ’92 that included David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. Saracens’ equivalent was similarly sprinkled with stardust; Farrell’s teammates included future England and Lions forwards Jamie George and George Kruis, as well as Jackson Wray and Will Fraser, who would go on to play in the Premiership and in Europe.

They were all thriving as part of an uncompromising regime headed up by an equally uncompromising Eddie Jones. The future England head coach was in charge of Saracens then, and that night I was also given a unique insight into his forthright and challenging approach that would ultimately cost him his job with the national side more than a decade later.

To be fair to Eddie, he’d welcomed me into the fold. At the start of the 2008/09 season, the Rugby Football Union for Women (or the RFUW,