Two ODs are behind the official Rugby World Cup 2023 book.  Matthew Pearce (1987G) and Tim Richman (1995B) paid the ODU a visit recently to drop off a copy of their latest collaboration, a magnificent coffee table book celebrating the Springboks’ winning campaign at the Rugby World Cup in France.

As SuperSport’s principle commentator for a number of years now, Matthew recently commentated on his 150th Springbok Test match, so he had the ideal vantage point from which to write the book.

Tim is a publisher based in Cape Town – and also editor of The Old Diocesan magazine – and explains that this book took some serious effort to compile:

“We worked on it from pretty much the moment the final whistle blew against the All Blacks at Stade de France. Matthew had to get contributions from every single Springbok involved, not to mention Rassie and Jacques Nienaber, plus he had to write all the match reports, and I had to jump through hoops to arrange the official licences from World Rugby and SARU, among other things.”

This is Matthew and Tim’s third book together, having published a similar book on the 2019 Rugby World Cup and a book on the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa.

For individual copies, the book is only available through the SARU website and one other retailer, Select Books, operated David McLennan (1975G).

“Back To Back,: The Springboks’ Rugby World Cup Victory In Their Own Words – France 2023” by Matthew Pearce, published by Burnet Media. Contact David at [email protected] for orders, or Tim at [email protected] for more info.

A copy was presented to the ODU, with thanks.

The photographs below show the front cover and pages from the book, with a photo of Matt signing the copy presented to the ODU and the frontespiece with the author's signature.

Photos: Bishops Archives.

Photo Credit of the feature photograph: Dedry Weich.