The Hurt: The Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year

One of the best sports books I have read. Brilliant insights into the world of professional rugby.

Dylan Hartley's book offers a frank, occasionally brutal, account of life at the highest level of elite sport. Despite my reservations about rugby as a spectacle, I found this book very interesting. Despite my reservations about some aspects of the author's career profile, I found his reflections both candid and engrossing. In a successful collaboration with Michael Calvin, Dylan Hartley reveals some of the harsher realities of high performance sport and also shines a light on the innovative, demanding style of coaching adopted by Eddie Jones.

This experience says it all about elite sport if you’re at 90% fitness you’re dead in the water

A refreshingly brutally honest accounting of the life of an elite sportsman. Both enjoyable and thought-provoking, as it is intended to be. Its written in a way more designed to show you rugby life through his eyes than to provide a neat journey and at that it genuinely excels. Best autobiography I've ever read.

Good read. Some say it's depressing but to me just seems honest. Plenty lighthearted moments in there too and a great account of rugby and life from an England captain who joined the professional game before the full adoption of professional practices.

Dylan Hartley's book 'The Hurt' is an important tome about modern rugby union and the damage it now causes the players, through professionalism, players are bigger, stronger, fitter and with all kinds of supplements at their disposal - are able to do great damage to their opposition and to themselves - the days of 12 stone backs like Gareth Edwards are a page note in sporting history. Hartley records this with a passion and this should be applauded for in itself, this isn't a bad book at all. A lot of autobiographies by ex rugby union players tend to be jovial and humourous affairs, this isn't one of them so if that is an important factor when wanting to read a book of a rugby union players memoirs than maybe give this a miss, that in itself doesn't make this a frustrating read, it seems Hartley feels hard done by, that his efforts and sacrifices weren't appreciated enough and his has this terribly irritating habit of telling the reader that they wouldn't have been capable of doing what he did - he doesn't know who is reading his book but it seems that his self-assurance that very few could have done what he did or would be able to do harder things than play rugby is out there for posterity, what he doesn't realise is that he came to the England to play a sport that most people simply do not care about and that very few people would be bothered about the sacrifices that he made in a brilliant white shirt - these sacrifices were self imposed, the damage he ultimately took was well rewarded with a full paid professional career in sports, he could have quit at any time when the pain started to get bad but he kept on playing because at the end of the day - that is what he wanted to do. The person who stopped him was Eddie Jones who dropped him and stopped him going to the world cup in Japan - he obviously did him a favour even if that might still rankle with him. Hartley has done a lot with his life and is a successful man with a lot to be proud of. I understand a personality is a main factor of any autobiography and his isn't one of 'jolly japes in the dorm' but it could have been lighter in places. If that doesn't bother you, it will be up your street.

A very interesting and entertaining read, by a great player. Dylan had a colourful career in rugby, including moving continents. Lead England through a brilliant spell with Eddie Jones, but who eventually was beaten only by injury. Recommended.

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