Hampson's heroic journey proves relentlessly riveting

RUGBY:THE LAST word Matt Hampson heard as a rugby player was "engage".

A scrum at an England Under-21 training session in Franklin’s Gardens collapsed. Hampson lost consciousness. The 20-year-old woke up in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, paralysed from the neck down. He needed a ventilator to breathe. In one moment so much more than a rugby career perished. Everything that able-bodied people take for granted was ripped away, down to the most basic functions. The tragedy had a ripple effect, spreading outwards from the epicentre of family, to friends, team-mates and coaches.

And then there was Matt Hampson. Imprisoned in his own body, his mind endlessly replaying the instant a young man boasting a promising rugby career with Leicester Tigers and England, playing a sport he loved, with a girlfriend he doted on, doing something he had done tens of thousands of times before, swapped living for existing; at least initially.

The mental anguish was excruciating. In his own words he had a choice to make: “do I get busy living or get busy dying”. Sunday Times journalist Paul Kimmage was the first person to interview Hampson in Stoke Mandeville Hospital. A rapport was established and the two agreed to collaborate on a book that would tell the young man’s story.

The upshot is Engage, The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson(Simon Schuster, €15.99), a story that is by turn harrowing, uplifting, sad, funny, always uncomfortable, but relentlessly riveting. Kimmage promised Hampson he would shine a light in some dark places. He does that and then some. Their collaboration makes for a stunning book, irrespective of genre.

There are so many layers to the narrative; different voices, perspectives.

This is not just a book about a young sportsman who endures a terrible accident. It’s about a mother’s refusal to be stonewalled. It is about a father struggling to cope. It’s about a young woman who tries to come to terms with love, loyalty and a horrendously painful decision that she can’t avoid.

It’s about a former player and coach, whom Hampson idolises, not being able to walk through the doors of a hospital because it will kill him to see his young protégé paralysed.

It’s about a remarkable coterie of carers who help to provide quality of life.

But most of all it is about a remarkable young man, whose determination, humour and unflinching honesty is genuinely humbling.

Leo Cullen’s book primarily charts Leinster’s 2011 Heineken Cup triumph.

Told through the eyes of the only Irishman to life the European Cup twice – he led the Irish province to their triumph in 2009 – Leo Cullen: A Captain's Tale(Irish Sports Publishing, €15.99) provides the reader with an insight into events in the team room, the dressing-room and the pitch.

Cullen, in partnership with Liam Hayes, fleshes out stories behind the headlines in a diary-style narrative.

The pace rattles along, short and clipped with a vernacular tone; in some respects aping Leinster’s style of play.

There is a periodic respite from match minutiae when Cullen discusses more personal issues, providing an insight into life growing up in Wicklow, his schooling, friendship, injuries and rivalries. This gives the book more definition.

An outstanding leader his insight into a monumental year for the Irish province will be lapped up by Leinster supporters and those who want to delve behind the scenes to get a flavour of the pathway to glory for the 2011 European champions.

Donncha O'Callaghan – Joking Apart(Transworld Ireland, 10.55) invites the reader into his world this Christmas. It's an engaging place where the central character is racked by insecurity yet driven by a fierce, singular determination. He is a practical joker of renown yet by the same stroke a character who brings a pen and paper to team meetings because he doesn't trust himself to remember things.

He is a player who struggled against authority, that of coaches and referees, to the point of exasperation on either side.

It is the story of a young boy who lost his father at the age of five, who didn’t have many privileges growing up, yet who was inured by the unconditional love of his mum Marie – he’d test that fully from time to time – and some of the tougher variety from his older brothers.

Denis Walsh does an excellent job in capturing O’Callaghan’s tone. It’s difficult for a current player to be totally honest about his work environment and those with whom he shares it but O’Callaghan manages it reasonably well.

Higgy is the story of former England international fullback, Alastair Hignell, a talented cricketer and a highly regarded broadcaster.

He won Blues at Cambridge in both sports, played on 14 occasions for the English rugby team in the 1970s and three times made more than 1,000 runs in a season for Gloucestershire.

His insights into cricket and rugby in Higgy – Matches, Microphones and MS (Bloomsbury, €26.65) from that era are by turn funny and revealing.

He was a well-respected broadcaster – for those who think the job is easy it’ll be instructive to read his account of the opening match of the 1995 World Cup and the personal nightmare he endured – that battled with great dignity being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999.

He won many a physical battle in simply making it to sundry commentary positions before he retired following the 2007-2008.

He won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award in 2008 for his word in promoting awareness of multiple sclerosis.

His personal journey in that respect is captivating.