Highlights
- Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio is auctioning his 2003 Rugby World Cup winner's medal, expected to fetch between £50,000 and £80,000
- The sale follows a divorce and subsequent bankruptcy, which Dallaglio has discussed candidly, including seeking therapy for what he called "self-pity"
- His full memorabilia collection at Budd's auction house, including Lions and Sevens World Cup items, is valued at around £180,000 in total
- The auction takes place on October 13 in Northamptonshire
There's a particular kind of honesty in a man selling the exact object that proves he once had everything. Lawrence Dallaglio is doing precisely that, on October 13, in an auction room in Northamptonshire.
What's actually going under the hammer
The centrepiece is the medal Dallaglio was handed in Sydney on November 22, 2003, moments after England beat Australia 20-17 in extra time to win the Rugby World Cup — still, more than two decades on, the single greatest night in English rugby's history. Auction house Budd's has valued it between £50,000 and £80,000. It won't be going alone. Dallaglio is also parting with his 2007 World Cup runners-up medal (estimated £10,000), his 2003 Six Nations winner's medal (£5,000), medals from his Wasps career (£8,000 apiece), and a British and Irish Lions cap (£5,500). Altogether, the collection carries an estimated value of around £180,000.
Why now
Dallaglio was declared bankrupt after his divorce, a sequence of events he laid out plainly on The High Performance podcast earlier this month: "As a result of getting divorced, I was made bankrupt. I had some financial problems — I could've done things a lot better." It wasn't the first brush with it. Two years earlier, he'd narrowly avoided bankruptcy by agreeing to settle debts that included a £700,000 tax bill owed to HMRC. This summer, his bankruptcy terms were extended after a High Court application, with his discharge suspended. It's a steep fall for a man once reportedly earning £240,000 a year in his playing prime, with a net worth estimated at £5 million.
What's struck people isn't just the bankruptcy — it's how openly he's talked about what came with it. Dallaglio has said he sought therapy afterward, describing a period of what he called "self-pity" that followed the divorce and financial collapse. For a sport built on stoicism, and a player once defined by his physical dominance in the England back row, it's a rare and unusually direct admission.
English scrumhalf Kyran Bracken splashes beer on number 8 Lawrence Dallaglio as he holds the the William Webb Ellis Cup after the Rugby World Cup final between Australia and England at the Olympic Park Stadium in Sydney, 22 November 2003. England defeated Australia 20-17 during extra time. AFP PHOTO/Christophe SIMON CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP
The player behind the medal
Dallaglio spent his entire club career at one place — Wasps, from his teenage years until retirement in 2008, racking up 326 appearances without ever pulling on another club shirt. He won 85 caps for England as a flanker and number eight, captained the side, and toured three times with the British and Irish Lions. Along the way he collected five Premiership titles, two European titles and four Six Nations championships with Wasps and England. He's one of a small handful of players in the sport's history to have won both the Rugby World Cup and the Rugby Sevens World Cup — England lifted the Sevens title in 1993, a decade before the bigger prize in Sydney. He was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2016, and has spent the years since retirement building a second career as a broadcaster and rugby pundit.
What the medal was actually worth, before the auction estimate
Budd's own description of the lot captures why this particular piece of metal matters more than most sporting memorabilia: it was "the pinnacle of world rugby and the singular greatest achievement in English rugby history." Dallaglio was part of a squad — Martin Johnson lifting the Webb Ellis Cup, Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal in the dying seconds of extra time — that is still, to this day, the only England side to have won the tournament. Whatever it fetches on October 13, the number won't come close to capturing what it meant to earn it in the first place. That's precisely what makes selling it now, to get through a chapter of his life with considerably less glory attached, such a strikingly human thing to watch a former captain do in public.
