If you’ve got a rugby player in your household and you’re thinking about a holiday gift, you could do a lot worse than Rugby Revealed.

The instructional book by Gavin Hickie and Eilidh Donladson is a unique effort in the game in that it looks to speak to players who are just getting started. Usually you can find the rugby basics in a pamphlet or PDF somewhere, and there are many, many books on rugby coaching and elite aspects of the game, but Rugby Revealed strikes nicely in the middle, and offers players who have a smattering of knowledge some insight into how to get better.

This is an excellent book to get a high school or college player who is just starting out (and that means just about everyone since I think just starting out means you’ve been playing for two years or less). Even more experienced players can get something out of it, as Hickie and Donaldson walk you through the different aspects of the game, and how to play it. Along the way, they bring in the expertise, experience, and insight of international stars, who often say some pretty down-to-earth things.

When you’re a new rugby player, you have, presumably, got a basic handle on what the game is about (our team needs to go that way), and what the rules are (no blocking, no forward passes, wrap up in the tackle), and what your coach has asked you specifically to do. But it’s an ongoing joke that young players pigeonhole themselves into a position. You tell a player he or she is moving to center and he or she says “but I’m a flanker!” You say, “you’ve been playing for two months, you don’t know what you are!”

 So Hickie and Donaldson take you through each position, talking not in just broad platitudes (props are big), but in details - what physical and mental skills do you need? What is your job in that position? They bring in quotes from famous players, who more often than not mention that they started our playing a different position entirely, and only later moved to the position they are known for.

It’s a swift education for a young player not only about his or her position in this new-found game, but what the other players are doing, too. And in bringing in the stars to talk about how they got started, and how they look at the position, it brings young players into the brotherhood of the game - hey, he plays my position, too!

That’s just Section 1. Once you get acquainted with the game, there’s Section 2, The Skills. Once again, Rugby Revealed tries not to bog you down in minutiae, but the writers also try to give you details. How do you tackle? How do you work on improving your tackling? What do you think about when you tackle?

The different aspects of play, form the scrums to open-field decision-making, are there. What appeals to me about this book is that it has the potential to be a constant reference for a young player. It’s before game day, and you’re worried about your passing, you can go to that section, read the straightforward advice, and maybe practice a thing or two. Right, I’ve got to have my footwork under control … remember that tomorrow.

Rugby Revealed is fun to read if only to get the little stories from famous players about how they get where they are today (Welsh Center Jamie Roberts mentioning he kind of fudged the data when he was asked how much center experience he had, for example). But it’s more than that. If you’re trying to become a better rugby player, sometimes it’s about remembering the fundamentals - what is the main job of your position? What do the pros say? How do you approach your skill set to make you better?

You don’t always have to do that at practice, you can read and study it, too.

At the same time, devoting six or eight pages to a position means you go into real detail. And if you’re wondering (as many rugby players have) how to get more playing time, maybe a little research into a new position could help. Rugby Revealed doesn’t replace your coach, but it can augment what your coach does. It doesn’t replace your team’s game plan, but it gives players a game plan on how to approach their own strengths and deficiencies. Too often, in the USA, we know that players can’t get position-specific or skill-specific training. What if you had a book that game you some ideas on how to do that yourself, or with a friend?

Rugby Revealed is engaging, nicely-written (we’ll forgive them their British Isles spelling!), and supremely useful. It’s easy to just jump in and read one little section, or just absorb it cover to cover.

If you’ve just started getting into this game, or, for that matter, if you’ve just started coaching and haven’t played many of the positions, you can learn a lot from Rugby Revealed. And while you’re learning, you’re going to find some inspiration and a little bit of fun in there, too.