The Hooligan's Table: The Rugby Player’S Cookbook: How to Eat, Drink, Think and Entertain Like a Rugby Player

By David Martin

After playing rugby, one of the most physically challenging games you can play, both sides shake hands and walk off the field togetherand then sit down to a pint and a meal.

The Hooligans Table showcases the spirit of camaraderie for which rugby is known around the world and across the table. Author David Martin brings over thirty years of playing rugby and going to the pub after rugby games to the writing of this book. He has included recipes such as cheddar and stout soup, beer can chicken, the hangover cure sandwich, and cowboy cookiesall of which come from players, coaches, friends, and pubs where rugby is on the menu as well.

In addition to providing the recipes for the definitive rugby meal, this collection also offers energetic stories of games and meals; it invites you to sit down with other rugby players at The Hooligans Table. In the spirit of rugby, everyones invited; discover some great ways to create your own hooligans table.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462073313

David Martin

David Martin is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Honorary Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University.

Book preview

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Rugby – An Introduction

Chapter 1 – Line Out – Appetizers and Starters

Chapter 2 – In the Scrum – Stews, soups and other hearty fare

Chapter 3 – In the

Centers – Main Dishes

Chapter 4 – Hands in the Ruck –

Sandwiches and Burgers

Chapter 5 – Free Kicks – salads, sauces and sides

Chapter 6 – Sin Bin –

Desserts and other sweets

Chapter 7 – Try Line –

Post-game cocktails, breakfast

About the Author

Dedication

For Janet who makes all things possible and for Mackenzie who puts all things into perspective. Thanks and love always to my home team.

Foreword

By Malachy McCourt

I met David Martin when he was president of the Manhattan RFC and he was certainly a worthy successor to the post I was elected to, when the club was founded. Through our divergent career paths we have maintained a mutual interest in rugby and our club traditions which will continue until death intervenes.

The public perception of rugby players is of a mass of wild-eyed thugs who attempt to murder each other on the playing field and afterwards they adjourn to the nearby farm where they take a bull by the horns, knock him down and devour his testicles raw, straight from the warm carcass.

The game of rugby was begun at the Rugby School in England where during the course of a soccer game an Irish schoolboy with, as they said, a fine disregard for the game’s rules, instead of kicking the ball, picked it up and ran with it to score a goal of sorts.

Subsequently, the whole procedure was refined by a committee which drafted a set of laws which remain in effect to this day after more than a century and a half. Note I did not say rules, principles, commands, edicts, tenets or customs, but laws. To the best of my knowledge it is the only sport which is bound by laws which makes the referee the absolute judge of all activity on the field and who is more infallible than the pope. If you are idiot enough to question a ruling he can order you off the field for what is considered contempt.

Rugby players like most young and active folks feel an urgent necessity to comment on the referee’s lack of married parents, his crippled state which prevents him from keeping up with the play and, they ask, how is it that he can get about without a seeing-eyed dog, which any blind man should have. Why is it that that institution for the brain damaged where he lives would allow him out alone to officiate at rugby games when it’s quite obvious he will not be able to find his way home?

Despite the strange laws that govern this organized mayhem it attracts a world wide assortment of human beings male and female, imbibers, guzzlers, omophagists, pantophagists, beef eaters, pork eaters, vegetarians, omnivores, herbivores, plus a select dining club that eats only referees (raw).

Hence, this overdue book.

David Martin is well qualified in every department to assemble this rugby food and drink tome. The combination of epicurean and rugby lover fits him well for this tasty task. There are hundreds of thousands of rugby players worldwide who are pursued by loony fanatics, former players, and just camp followers and all have their favorite food and beverages, many of which are contained in this book.

If you seek popularity, buy this book, invite a rugby team for dinner, pick out your recipes and feed them to the crowd and in gratitude this stalwart bunch will guard your home against soccer hooligans, billionaire golfers and brain damaged conservative race car drivers.

Get out the pots, heat up the stove and get cooking.

A rugby player since he was a teenager in Limerick, Ireland, Malachy McCourt parlayed his rugby career, his Irish gift of blarney and an outsized personality into a career as an actor of stage, screen and television, author and radio host. He ran for governor of the State of New York in 2006 against Client Number 9, also known as Elliot Spitzer on the Green Party ticket. Turns out a vote for Malachy would have been a better vote.

He penned his memoir, A Monk Swimming then followed that with other books including, Danny Boy the history of that song and Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland. With his brother Frank, author of Angela’s Ashes, they wrote the play, A Couple of Blackguards

He came to New York City in 1952 and began his career with the New York Rugby Club and was the first president of the Manhattan Rugby Club. He maintains he never retired from the game but stopped playing actively in the late 1960’s.

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been written without the amazing and unwavering support of the rugby community in the world. The chef-contributors are all listed and have all helped make this book come to reality. Every person I talked to in putting this together reacted with a, wow, cool. Rugby players, friends and fan support each other and did for me. I also thank all the people I never met who helped, returned calls and emails and went out of their way to contribute.

Thanks first go to my agent, Erin Niumata at Folio Literary Management. She encouraged me to do this, shaped it, moved it forward and helped make this happen. She also happens to be the wife of Foster, my teammate and therefore knows a thing or two about rugby herself.

I picked up the phone one day and got connected to a new friend and collaborator and rugby player, Alex McCoy. He was the head chef at the Rugby Café in Georgetown, Washington D.C. when it opened. His support and enthusiasm for the project was second to none. He has since opened his own place, Po’ Breaux Eat Place in the Shaw neighborhood in Washington. Stop in and if you tell him you play rugby too, you will also have a new friend in Washington.

Three chef friends helped out any time I asked. Alan Harding is a great chef and a great friend. He explained how to chiffonade basil and the right way to pronounce it, discussed chef techniques, looked over recipes and bought me a beer or two and listened. Dave Ward and I met when he came out to play for the Manhattan RFC. David is an amazing chef and would answer the question like, what’s in Irish bangers and what kind of butter goes into mashed potatoes. Thanks, next Yankee game is on me. Thanks also to Troy Benson, a teammate and chef who reviewed all the recipes to make sure I didn’t say salt when I meant sugar.

Years ago I was a newspaper reporter at the Staten Island Advance and met Mark Hanley. He is one of the best newspaper writers I ever worked with and he read this entire book more than once and provided helpful edits and suggestions.

I discovered that most pubs don’t really have recipes per se. However, the contributors here all took the time to sit down at a computer and write up what it is they do. This is not what pub managers and chefs usually do. But they did it here and I raise a glass to each one.

Special mention goes to Des O’Brien and Cormac McCormack. Des is a member of the Vintage Whines touring side and owns O’Brien’s, Langan’s and the Pig and Whistle in New York City. Aside from Cormac, the general manager at O’Brien’s saying yes to everything I asked for, the pair also provided great insight into bar operations and cooked up a few of the dishes we photographed. O’Brien’s Sin Bin is a true rugby pub just off Times Square. Just a few blocks away, Matt astill owns and operates The Australian and he also provided recipes and support. Despite being a Rugby League player, he’s still a great bloke. His neighbor is also a good friend, Liam Lynch owns Blaggard’s and provided the Gaelic chicken and as always, a pint or two. One of my favorite barbecue joints is right in Manhattan, RUB, Righteous Urban Barbecue. Thanks go out to Celeste for the great pulled pork sandwich.

As proof that rugby is an international game, recently I traveled to Singapore. I met up with the local rugby team, the Singapore Wanderers and met a great bunch of guys at Harry’s in Boat Quay. Then I met Mohan Mulani, the owner who made me a local, presenting me with a Harry’s discount card and a new home bar in Singapore. Stop into a Harry’s if you find yourself in Singapore, if you bought this book there, I hope a little rugby and a little Harry’s spirit travels with you everywhere.

When I moved to Miami and started playing for the Tridents, I met John Tombley. John designed the cover and provided art direction for the book. John was one of the best guys I ever played with until injuries knocked him out of the game. John knows where the best barbecue is, where the free hot dogs are and will always meet you at the bar. He’s a true teammate.

Speaking of art, a huge thanks go out to all the photographers. They provided great pictures, most of them working for beer. Thanks to Mark Dye who took most of the food pictures you see. Thanks to Sabrina Asch and Peter Marney who never go to a game without their camera and shared their best shots with me. Chuck Bruce took the photo of me in action, yes playing 7s. That’s me playing for the Gentlemen of New York in the New York 7s, which my home club, the New York Rugby Club hosts. In Pittsburg, Joe Piszczor took pictures of his home bar, The Rugger’s Pub, which his club owns. In Virginia, Jennifer Bentley got Stax and his Western Suburbs teammates to look good. The back cover photo is provided by Action Photo from the CanAm Tournament in Lake Placid. In that photo I am playing for the Mystic River Hombres.

When I started this book I called my friend Meg Votta to see if she would help out. Meg is a chef and jumped into the project. Sadly, Meg died of cancer as we were collaborating on the book. But one of the last things she said to me was, finish the book. Meg was a flyhalf, great rugby friend and founded the Olde Girls, which before political correctness gave way, was called the Touring Women over Thirty, or TWOTS. Unfortunately, Meg was always going to add more recipes later, but time ran out. Luckily, she added a few and with this book, a little bit of Meg lives on. To those that know her, her love of rugby, friends and food are all over the pages of The Hooligan’s Table.

Finally, thanks must