World Champions by Jonty Winch

World Champions (First Edition Softcover, South African Rugby History)

A Critical History of South African Rugby from the Cape in 1879 to World Cup Glory

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: World Champions: The Story of South African Rugby
• Author: Jonty Winch
• Publisher: BestRed, an imprint of HSRC Press, Cape Town
• Publication Date: 2022
• ISBN-13: 9781928246435
• Edition Details: First published 2022. Standard softcover release.
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated card wrappers, perfect bound, with a black spine carrying a South African flag motif and the BestRed logo.
• Physical Format: Large softcover (trade paperback format), thick volume. Illustrated wrappers.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Wraps: The glossy illustrated front cover is clean and bright with no obvious marks. The black spine with white lettering is intact and uncreased. The back cover has a bent and creased lower-left corner, with a diagonal crease across the corner, small white scuffs at the tip and some paper loss or fraying at the tip. This is the only noticeable flaw.
• Interior: The text pages are clean, white and unmarked, with clean white page edges. The text block is tight. No foxing, stains or markings are evident.
• The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)

Synopsis & Historical Value

World Champions: The Story of South African Rugby, published in Cape Town by BestRed, an imprint of HSRC Press, in 2022, is a wide-ranging history of the game in South Africa. It begins with the establishment of rugby at the Cape in 1879 and follows its course through the racial divide between the white and non-racial governing bodies to unity in 1992, framed by the 2019 Rugby World Cup win and the 2021 series victory over the Lions.

Each chapter takes up a key event and questions accepted narratives, placing the sport within the larger story of colonialism, apartheid and social change. The book looks at all sections of society, black, white, coloured and women, rather than the Springbok story alone.

A useful and serious reference for readers of South African sporting and social history. This is the first edition of 2022; a revised second edition with additional chapters on the 2023 World Cup win followed later.

Author Profile: Jonty Winch

Jonty Winch holds an MA with distinction from De Montfort University's International Centre for Sports History and Culture and a PhD from Stellenbosch University. His career spans photography, journalism and education, and he has been involved in more than a dozen southern African sports-history books.

His other works include Too Black to Wear Whites (with Richard Parry, Pitch Publishing, 2021), Cricket and Conquest (co-authored) and Cricket and Society in South Africa, 1910-1971 (edited with Murray and Parry).