RITV Summer Series – Book Review: ‘Bare Knuckles’ by Michael Blucher and John Connolly

 

Bare Knuckles: the untold stories of Australia’s most colourful rugby coach
Michael Blucher & John Connolly
2025, 232 pages
All proceeds to the Perry Cross Foundation
www.johnconnollybook.com.au

 

‘John Connolly is living proof that it’s preferable to be interesting, than it is to be prefect’ – Bare Knuckles, p. 232

 

After two consecutive losses to England and Italy, as the Wallabies prepare to take on Ireland this weekend as part of the 2025 Autumn Tour, it is perhaps timely that I write this review of Michael Blucher’s biography of the former Wallabies coach, John Connolly titled Bare Knuckles, the untold stories of Australia’s most colourful coach.

John ‘Knuckles’ Connolly certainly coached during a different era of Australian rugby.

The book covers many key moments in John’s life, from his early days in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Darwin, through to the day he became a quadriplegic, 1 August 2021, and beyond.

The book is far more than a chronology of John’s life. Michael Blucher is a highly intelligent, experienced and jocular writer. The book is a collection of many anecdotes of John’s life and coaching journey, from Darwin, the Brisbane club scene, to France, England, Ireland and Wales, as well as his beloved Queensland Reds, and the Wallabies.

John Connolly was a very talented cricketer in his late teenage years, playing grade cricket for Valleys while still at Marist College, Ashgrove as captain of the First XI, and captaining the Queensland State Schools’ team.

By his own admission, John did not take the cricket opportunities that were ‘served up to him on a platter’.

Connolly’s first foray into rugby coaching was, fittingly, in the top end for the Casuarina rugby club, 1979-1981. The final chapter was as an advisor to Queensland Reds coach Richard Graham, in 2015. To say the stint back at Ballymore ended badly would be the understatement of the decade.

Of the many brilliant anecdotes described in the book, the Brendan Cannon revenge prank was possibly my favourite. The Wallaby hooker exacted revenge on Connolly for a plank two years earlier, when Cannon was ‘arrested’ in Argentina.

Cannon waited two years for revenge, on tour in South Africa. He faked a broken wrist when he was in line to play ‘next man up’ against Transvaal in place of the suspended Michael Foley. Everyone, including the team staff, the officials back in Australia who were telling Connolly the possible replacements were unavailable, were in on the prank.

Cannon walked into the team meeting on game day eve, no plaster to be seen, dropped to the floor and performed several push ups, to the thunderous applause and laughter of all in the room!

There are even a series of photos in the book chronicling this prank/revenge prank!

Other highly amusing stories are scattered throughout the book, including Connolly describing the grey, industrial Swansea to the unsuspecting Sam Cordingley as ‘the Noosa of Wales!’

Tom Jones, Mike Tindall, Zara Phillips’ enjoyment of wine straight from the bottle, John O’Neill’s red trousers, the flamboyant Stade de France owner Max Guazzini, and many other significant figures rate very deserving mention in this most entertaining read.

Nothing is left out of this account: including rugby politics, for example NSW coach Greg Smith’s rise to the national coaching job, on the back of the Rugby South Australia vote. Yes, that’s no typo. A sizable grant went the way of Adelaide, with the Croweaters then coincidentally voting for G Smith, NSW!

Great coaches are typically unselfish, going ‘above and beyond’.  Connolly was this type of coach for decades, both in Australia, and overseas.

He had the utmost respect of his players – John Eales, captain of the Wallabies 1999 World Cup winning team, wrote this in the foreword to the book:

‘Among a group of many great coaches I encountered, John was the most selfless. In his world, it was always about what was best for the team and his players and never about himself. In the decade he coached me, he NEVER sought personal glory, in fact he shunned it.’

Knuckles also tackled politics, at both state and local levels.

To add perspective to quality of the era Connolly was a part of, the ‘best of the best’ chapter reads like a roll call of rugby greats. The book goes through each of the fifteen positions. Connolly lists the best players he coached, and/or coached against during his time. Here are just a few (Australian) examples:

Outside centre: Jason Little, Daniel Herbert, Stirling Mortlock
Flyhalf: Stephen Larkham, Michael Lynagh, Elton Flatley
Openside flanker: George Smith, Phil Waugh, David Wilson.

Knuckles also lists several overseas players he coached in his various European stints, including Jason Robinson, Richie McCaw, Jonah Lomu, Danny Grewcock, Pieter De Villiers, Sylvain Marconnet.

Connolly is a deep thinker about many aspects of life, including rugby. One of the last chapters in the book, ‘The climb back to the top of the mountain’, outlines Connolly’s thoughts, with the repeated phrase: ‘How did we (Australian rugby) get to where we are? How?’

The ‘How did we get to where we are? How’?’ is the question Connolly is asked on a weekly basis as he goes about his life on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Connolly offers a series of wise points: the need to develop front rowers, the New Zealand model, where All Black selectors regularly attend schoolboy matches. Connolly makes the point that more NRL talent scouts attend schoolboy rugby, including the national school championships, than representatives from the 15-player game.

“The NRL is not going to go away”, states Connolly.

I can vouch for this from personal experience. When I served 15 great years at Brisbane Boys’ College, a ‘GPS’ (rugby playing) school, two current NRL stars, Melbourne’s grand final centre Jack Howarth, and Canberra Raiders speedster Xavier Savage were BBC students. Jack was already on the Storm’s books as a Year 10 student, while Xavier had a choice of clubs. They were rugby league boys, always on their way to the NRL.

True, other BBC old boys Carter Gordon and Len Ikitau are part of the Wallabies Spring tour, trying to starve off unwanted history in the last two test matches of the tour, in Dublin, then Paris.

Sounds romantic, Ireland one week, then off to Paris. Limited romance, however, when the losses start to mount.

As an (athletics) coach, some of my favourite reads have been biographies of coaches, including the legendary swim coach, Don Talbot; the Doctor, the parliamentarian/cricketer/hockey player and coach Ric Charlesworth; and the man who revolutionised cricket coaching, Bob Simpson.

Bare Knuckles is now part of that ‘great read’ list.

Well done, John Connolly and Michael Blucher. Bare Knuckles is a very informative and entertaining read. The book highlights John’s very positive attitude to life, his love and gratitude for his family and close friends, as well as his wise analysis of the game he loves, rugby.

 

Margaret River Red Wine of the Week

Heidi and I are currently in the magnificent town of Broome, Western Australia. A tour to celebrate 30 years of marriage. Last week, we spent a few wonderful days in the equally magnificent Margaret River. The first cellar door we visited, Cape Grace.

2021 Cape Grace Basket Pressed Shiraz:

 

 

RITV
Broome, November 2025

 

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