Heineken Cup Heroes: Lawrence Dallaglio

It would be stretching it to say that Lawrence Dallaglio was liked by Irish rugby fans but he was certainly respected. And with good reason.

Think of the English rugby players that have gotten up Irish noses over the years and we don’t think it would be stretching it to say that alongside the likes of Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Austin Healy and Chris Ashton of a more recent vintage, Lawrence Dallaglio wouldn’t be far from the top of the list.

Similarly, ask any Irish player from the mid to late 90s to the mid to late 2000s who their most difficult English opponent was and Dallaglio wouldn’t be far from the top of that list either.

Did he come across as a bit smug at times? Yes. Did he step over the line on occasion? Absolutely. But there have been few better leaders than the former England and Wasps number eight and it is of little surprise that he was a central character in a hugely successful period for club and country up until his retirement in 2008.

Dallaglio won 85 caps for England and four Six Nations titles, including the Grand Slam in 2003, was an ever present in their World Cup success in the same year and was also part of the side that nearly repeated their success in France in 2007.

For Wasps, he won five Premiership titles – four as captain, two Heineken Cups – both as captain, three Powergen Cups and a Challenge Cup in 2003 for good measure.

The ‘show us your medals’ line isn’t trotted out as often in rugby as it is in football, but if anyone dared throw that comment in Dallaglio’s direction, he certainly wouldn’t be found wanting.

In terms of the Heineken Cup, Irish fans will probably best remember Dallaglio for his contribution to the epic semi-final victory over Munster in Lansdowne Road in 2004, a game still held up as one of the best in the history of the competition.

Dallaglio evades the attentions of a much younger Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell at Lansdowne Road in 2004

Wasps had a serious team that year – Josh Lewsey, Rob Howley, Simon Shaw and Joe Worsley also featured, for example – but it was Dallaglio who dragged the London club back from a ten-point deficit with only 20 minutes to go at a time when Munster simply didn’t surrender that kind of lead so late in a game.

Dallaglio was sin-binned in the second half during the final against Toulouse, but he was still on the pitch when Rob Howley stole in to score the dramatic late try that pushed them over the line

If Wasps’ 2004 triumph was hard-fought, their second success in 2007 was far more straightforward. Leinster were one of a number of teams simply swatted aside like, for want of a better word, wasps, as Dallaglio and his teammates breezed through the knockout stages on a combined aggregate score of 90-35, beating Leinster (quarter-finals), Northampton (semi-final) and Leicester Tigers (final) along the way.

Irish rugby followers and indeed fans of any opposition that Dallaglio has faced over the years will hardly speak glowingly of his influence without gritting their teeth just a little, but there will certainly be a grudging admiration there, such was his unmistakable influence for club and country.

And to think, it could have all been so different if he had taken the IRFU up on an invitation to don the green jersey early in his career; his mother is half-Irish after all.

Now, that would have been interesting.