He had a hugely successful career on the pitch but has also made headlines for events off of it
Dallaglio (centre) had an eventful rugby career on and off the pitch
By playing a leading role in England’s sensational Rugby World Cup win in 2003, Lawrence Dallaglio cemented his place as one of the most iconic figures in the history of the English game.
A glittering career saw the powerful back row forward earn 85 caps for his country and win no fewer than five Premiership titles, three League Cups and three European trophies with Wasps, for whom he played 326 matches. However, as a teenager, he didn’t look destined to reach the highest level of the game, with a brutal tragedy changing the trajectory of his career.
In 1989, Dallaglio’s sister Francesca died in the Marchioness disaster on the River Thames. The 19-year-old student ballerina was the youngest of the 51 people who were killed in the tragic incident, in which the Marchioness pleasure boat – which had been booked out for a birthday party – was hit twice by a dredger on the river in the early hours of the morning and rapidly sank.
Dallaglio – who was just 17 at the time – and his family then faced a “horrific” wait for news on Francesca, whose body was recovered four days after the disastrous incident.
The Wasps legend had also been invited to the party on the boat that night, but ultimately did not attend due to feeling unwell. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
“Whatever happens in your life after that particular moment is not really as it ought to be,” he said as he reflected on the tragedy in a 2011 interview. “We all had dinner as a family the night before.
“I was invited on the boat as well, but I had a headache so decided not to go. It was very unlike me to turn down a party.
“The next day, Mum woke me to tell me my sister hadn’t come back,” Dallaglio continued. “I immediately thought, ‘She’s probably dead. She’s a very sensible girl’. The boat sank at 1am. If she wasn’t home by then, there had to be a very good reason. It was horrific.”
Now 53, the three-time British & Irish Lions tourist was left pondering if what happened to his sister was a turning point in his career, as he added: “I certainly wasn’t destined to play for England. I didn’t even play for the 1st XV at school. But I became a man on a mission after I lost my sister.
“Part of that might have just been me growing up. It’s very hard for me to understand. Was I successful as a result of the fact I decided to grow up, or as a result of the fact my sister died?”
Having been rocked by the tragedy, Dallaglio later told WalesOnline that pursuing a professional rugby career with Wasps helped him to “rebuild his life”.
“From the minute I walked through the door, it just felt like the right place for me,” he said. “It was exactly what I needed at the time. I needed a family, I needed a community, I needed some people to put their arms round me and just help me a little bit because I was definitely in a difficult and dark place.
“Saturdays became a fun day for me and my mum and dad. It helped not only me rebuild my life, but them rebuild theirs as well.
“Everyone has a cross to bear and there are bumps in the road in everyone’s life,” Dallaglio continued. “For mine to come at the age of 16 was a big road-block, but rugby was able to give me some sort of therapy and allowed all of us as a family to move forward. And that was the start of an incredible journey.”
However, while Dallaglio had a hugely successful career on the pitch, it was on occasion marred by his behaviour off of it.
In 1999, he resigned as England captain following allegations in the News of the World that he had used hard drugs including cocaine and ecstasy. The publication also alleged that he had boasted to undercover reporters about taking drugs at a party during the 1997 British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.
He was fined £15,000 by the RFU following an investigation, with Martin Johnson being appointed as skipper in his place.
Over 20 years later, Dallaglio was embroiled in a new scandal as it was alleged that he had used his own bank cards to spend £10,000 in a London brothel, which was said to have offered customers hookers and cocaine.
His alleged visit emerged during a 2020 trial of a gang accused of supplying prostitutes and Class A drugs, with the brothel raided and shut down by police the previous year. The trial heard that police recovered bank card receipts at the venue, with Dallaglio’s name then emerging.
The former Wasps man was then interviewed under caution by police in the presence of a solicitor, but no further action was taken against him. It was never established what Dallaglio paid for and it is not known whether he was alone during his visits to the brothel.
The last year has also been difficult for Dallaglio, who earlier this year was revealed to be splitting from his wife Alice Corbett after nearly 20 years of marriage.
The couple, who share three children together, married in 2005 after dating for almost a decade, but have now decided to go their separate ways, with the couple attending the Central Family Court in Holborn, London in February in an attempt to agree the terms of their separation.
The 85-cap international’s relationship with Alice, a former model and art student, faced plenty of highs and lows, with the pair briefly splitting up in 2003 before soon reconciling and tying the knot two years later.
However, they have now decided to split, with a source telling The Sun that the couple had “weathered a number of storms” during the course of their relationship.
Alice’s mother Lydia Corbett told MailOnline at the time: “I’m very sad about it. People marry and they divorce, I’ve been divorced twice so I know what it’s like. It’s horrible, it’s painful for the heart and it’s not fair.
“He did very well, I loved him, but he’s going through a bad phase and we hope he’s alright.”
The split came as Dallaglio was revealed to be in financial ruin, with the former England international declared bankrupt earlier this year, two years after he narrowly avoided going bust over an unpaid tax bill believed to amount to around £700,000.
At the time, it was revealed his sports business, which he set up in 1997, owed money to a series of creditors and was in danger of being wound up by a court order, with the former rugby star agreeing to an ‘individual voluntary agreement’ in order to pay off his debts. However, it was confirmed in May that his arrangement with HMRC had failed.
Dallaglio had reportedly been forced to sell his four-bedroom family home of 25 years for a cut price in a bid to pay off creditors.
While he had initially hoped to sell the Surrey mansion for £3.3m, MailOnline reported that the 53-year-old had sold it for £600,000 cheaper to Premier League footballer Jayden Meghoma, who was just 18 at the time of the sale.
The teenager, who is currently on loan at Rangers from Brentford, is believed to have purchased the property for £2.7m.
An insolvency court hearing had been triggered by Dallaglio’s estranged wife, who was seeking an ‘urgent’ order to push the sale of the house through in a bid to save him from potential financial ruin. However, while the sale went through, he was still declared bankrupt, with one of his creditors securing the order.