Bankrupt England legend Lawrence Dallaglio is selling his 2003 Rugby World Cup winner’s medal
Lawrence Dallaglio celebrating England's 2003 Rugby World Cu final win and, inset, the medal listed on the auction website
Lawrence Dallaglio has put up for auction next month the Rugby World Cup medal he won with England in 2003. The legendary English back-rower, a winner of 85 Test caps with his country and a three-time British and Irish Lions tourist, has been declared bankrupt.
Last year’s divorce from Alice, his wife of almost 20 years, resulted in the sale of the family home in Richmond, south-west London, and the 54-year-old Dallaglio was ordered to hand over his share of the proceeds to pay off his debts.
The ex-England skipper has now decided to auction a collection of his rugby memorabilia, including the medal given to him in Sydney 23 years ago after Clive Woodward’s team defeated the Wallabies with Jonny Wilkinson’s extra time drop goal.
The winner’s medal has been listed by Budds, the Northamptonshire-based auctioneer, with an estimate of £50,000 to £80,000 ahead of the October 13 auction.
Collection has highest estimate value of £175,000
The 2003 medal is one of 22 items belonging to Dallaglio up for sale. The collection includes a variety of other medals from his career, including the 2007 World Cup runners-up medal which has an estimate of £5,000 to £10,000.
Dallaglio’s 2003 Six Nations winner’s medal from England’s Grand Slam campaign has an estimate of between £3,000 and £5,000, while several Premiership and Heineken Cup medals won with Wasps each have a £5,000 to £8,000 estimate.
There are also England and British and Irish Lions caps up for grabs, with estimates of £5,000 each, as well as his World Rugby hall of fame cap valued between £500 and £800.
In total, the collection, which also featured a number of player of the year awards, tankards and a framed 1997 British and Irish Lions tour training top, has a lowest estimate value of just over £110,000 and a highest estimate of £175,000.
Describing lot 90 – the 2003 World Cup medal – on its website, Budds wrote: “Silver-gilt Rugby World Cup winners medal… with green and blue ribbon, in original fitted case.
“It was presented to Dallaglio on November 22, 2003, in Sydney, following victory in the Rugby World Cup final against host nation Australia. England defeated Australia 20-17 after extra time. It was the pinnacle of world rugby and the singular greatest achievement in English rugby history.”
Dallaglio, who made his England debut in 1995 and retired from Test rugby in 2007 before leading Wasps to the 2008 Premiership title in his final club season, recently spoke about his plight during an appearance on The High Performance podcast.
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“The first place to look is at yourself,” explained the former back-rower, who went on to have a career in rugby punditry following his retirement from playing. “In the last couple of years, I’ve got divorced. As a result of getting divorced, I was made bankrupt, so I had some financial problems.
“And I probably was guilty of withdrawing back into my little shell and going a little bit into hibernation because naturally I’m quite a sort of extrovert, confident, bubbly individual, annoyingly confident sometimes, and I have to rein that in a little bit because I appreciate other people don’t share that enthusiasm for life all the time.
“And silence can often lead to belief when you don’t say very much. But for someone who says a lot all the time, it was probably no bad thing for me to just take what’s happened on the chin a little bit and sit back and reflect and, as I said to you before from my own experiences, the first place to start is with yourself. Of course, there’s ultimately things that I could have done better.”