Description
‘I have no regrets. Most rugby players give up when their bodies do. For me it was more in the mind. As much as my limbs were beginning to creak and groan, it was the mental pressure that weighed the heaviest. That’s unique to playing ten in Wales. Whether you’re the captain or not, you carry the biggest burden. You call the plays, you direct the players and you live and die by the performance of the team. When I reflect on it all, I can say without any doubt that I gave it everything.’
There are few more iconic jerseys than that of the Welsh number ten. Worn by such legendary figures as Barry John, Phil Bennett and Jonathan Davies, it’s a garment woven into the tapestry of rugby folklore. Its legacy casts a long shadow from which it can be difficult to emerge. But one player has done so triumphantly, through a combination of talent, determination and bloody-minded resilience: Dan Biggar, the most-capped Welsh 10 in the nation’s history.
On the pitch, Biggar is the ultimate competitor. His playing style – brash, aggressive and forthright – and his conduct – arguing with referees and remonstrating with opponents – has earned him censure. Yet, off the pitch, he is one of the most grounded ambassadors of the sport.
For the first time, Dan offers a rare insight into this contradiction at the heart of his nature and talks candidly of the power struggles within Wales’s most successful ever squad. He explores his working relationships with the ‘complex’ Warren Gatland, the ‘genius’ Shaun Edwards, and the ‘underrated’ Wayne Pivac, and also addresses the crippling weight of expectation suffered by all Welsh outside halves. He examines the criticism he faced for not ‘fitting the mould’, and takes us into the mindset of a world-class goalkicker.
In the definitive memoir of his life and career, Dan also bares his innermost emotions, from the joy of captaining Wales to victory in South Africa, through Grand Slam glory and World Cup woe, to the devastation of losing his mother just weeks before becoming the Lions number 10. He opens the changing room door on some of rugby’s most compelling episodes – from the threatened strike action that could have bankrupted the game, to the proposed club merger that nearly derailed a Grand Slam campaign.
Now in a position where he can look back on fifteen years at the very pinnacle of test rugby, The Biggar Picture is a frank, illuminating and gripping account, from one of the sport’s most compelling figures.
