Lawrence Dallaglio: Everything you need to know about the England legend

Lawrence Nolan
England trio Neil Back, Lawrence Dallaglio and Richard Hill

England trio Neil Back, Lawrence Dallaglio and Richard Hill at 2003 Rugby World Cup.

One of those rarities in the modern rugby world, a one-club man, Lawrence Dallaglio came to embody England’s Class of 2003 era perhaps more than any other member of that team.

One of only four players to have won both Sevens and XV World Cups, Dallaglio has continued to work on his legacy following his rugby career with an enormous amount of charity work as well as some of the more intelligent punditry currently on offer.

If he was no spectacular player in terms of glory moments, a more telling measure of his contribution is the way Wasps and England’s form would dip if he was not available – never more apparent than in the 2007/08 Wasps season when he returned from an extended Rugby World Cup break to find his club struggling near the foot of the Premiership table. Nine months later they were champions.

A teak-tough back-rower with surprising pace, immense game intelligence and endless capacity for work, Dallaglio will remain historically a benchmark England back-row player for some time to come.

Player background

Dallaglio was born in London to an Italian father and an English-born mother of Irish descent. Educated at Ampleforth, one of England’s better schools, he excelled at rugby – as well as other things: as a school chorister he was one of a group of schoolboys who both sung backing vocals on ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ by Tina Turner and sung at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s wedding. He studied property development at Kingston University, but by this point he was well on his way upwards in the rugby world, having already joined Wasps, where he would stay for 18 years…

Club career

He joined Wasps as a teenager in 1990 but took a while to establish himself in the team, while sevens also took up some of his time. He won the World Cup Sevens with England in 1993, the following season beginning to make a name for himself at club level.

By 1995 he had cracked the Wasps first team and was being touted as one of the great players in the making.

The departure that year of club captain Dean Ryan and fly-half Rob Andrew for Newcastle, along with a few other important players, was probably the making of Dallaglio.

He took over the captaincy and led Wasps to their first Premiership title two years later in 1997.

But his, and Wasps’, heydays came in the 2000s under Sir Ian McGeehcan and Warren Gatland.

Not only did Dallaglio lead or feature in three consecutive Premiership titles and one other in 2008, there were also two Heineken Cup triumphs and a Challenge Cup win.

The rivalry with Leicester during this time was one of the most enjoyable features of English club rugby, with Dallaglio claiming the Heineken Cup Final win over Tigers in 2007 as proof that this was the greatest Wasps team ever, while the Premiership title in 2008 was also said by him to be the best-ever Premiership win after the squad had been so depleted by the World Cup.

International career

He debuted for England in 1995 and in 1997 he had both cracked his first British & Irish Lions tour and the England captaincy. The rugby world was at his feet. However a dubious ‘sting’ operation by the News of the World paper saw him lose the captaincy and be fined by the RFU for bringing the game into disrepute after the paper alleged he had bragged to them about dealing and taking drugs.

He was fined, but crucially not cut adrift from international rugby by coach Sir Clive Woodward and became an integral part of the England back-row, and team, which eventually won the World Cup in 2003.

In the final, a break and inside pass by Dallaglio was the key to England’s try.

After hanging up his boots for a while, he came out of retirement in 2005 and featured in England’s run to the 2007 World Cup final. In the wake of that, both he and Mike Catt, who had both been credited with major influential roles in the World Cup run, published autobiographies deeply critical of coach Brian Ashton, for which Dallaglio later issued a partial apology.

Lions tours in 2001 and 2005 were both cut short by injury and he won only three Lions caps, having also toured in 1997.

Personal life

Dallalgio married long-time girlfriend Alice in 2006 and he has two daughters, Ella and Josie, and a son, Enzo. His mother, whom he has often called ‘his rock’, Eileen passed away in 2008, an event which saw Dallaglio formalise his charity work. His sister Francesca was tragically killed in the Marchioness ferry disaster in London when Dallaglio was 17.

Net worth

Dallaglio is well-heeled as a TV and radio pundit but contributes a huge amount to charity through his Dallaglio RugbyWorks company. Precise value figures are not in the public domain, but Dallaglio featured in the Financial Times’ ‘My First Million’ column in 2008 and it’s reasonable to assume the worth has not dwindled since.

READ MORE: Martin Johnson: Everything you need to know about the England legend

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