Matthew Burke: A Rugby Life - NEW

Matthew Burke is acclaimed throughout the rugby world as one of the greatest players of the modern era.  Hero of many famous footballing battles, including those of Australia's triumphant 1999 World Cup campaign, he is among the game's highest ever point-scorers, and widely revered as a supreme goalkicker.  The modest man known to his mates as 'Burkey' played in three World Cups and numerous Test and Super 12 matches in a glittering career at the top that stretched for more than a decade.

Now, in his own words, Matthew takes us inside the seasons of his football life.  He tells of schoolboy days that built the foundation for what he became and of the path he followed to record-breaking performances in rugby's great international stadiums.  Along the way there is pain and controversy, and nail-biting first-hand accounts of matches long since legendary.  Matt Burke pulls no punches in talking of the game he chose to play and of its players and those behind the scenes.  With equal candour he writes of the great highs: famous tries and goals and Bledisloe Cup wins... and plunging lows: the agonising injuries, the axing from his beloved NSW Waratahs in 2004, and his disappointment at not being part of the championship late rounds of the 'home' World Cup, 2003.

Matthew Burke - A rugby life celebrates a great sporting career.  It is the inspirational tale of Burkey - the man, the peerless footballer and the supreme role model.