LAWRENCE DALLAGLIO’S unbelievable career had a myriad aspect, every one of them packed with the most vivid colour.

I saw all his big games first-hand. I can already feel the void. However, if there was so much to it, in terms of his brilliance as a rugby player, for me it all fell into three main categories, all of them featuring Dallaglio as a great.

He first ascended to true world class in 1997 on the Lions tour of South Africa, when he was part of what I still consider the finest back row I have seen.

At that time, Dallaglio was on the blindside with Richard Hill on the openside and Tim Rodber at No 8. Rodber was to retire an enigma, but on that tour he was sensational - and Dallaglio was one of the most influential figures of the whole series.

During the next phase, which was centred around 2003 and both the English Grand Slam of that year and the World Cup triumph, he became the greatest No 8 I have seen. It trod on my own dreams to admit it, but he finally climbed above Mervyn Davies.

During the remarkable win over Australia in Melbourne a few months before the World Cup, he was so quick and so powerful on the burst that he was often into the secondary line of the Australian defence before their back row had even moved.

In terms of his own athleticism and skill, it is just possible that, like England, he reached a peak around the time of that Melbourne game. His granite-like endurance and granite-like self-belief were by now influencing the whole of world rugby.

He also expected to win all the big games. The week before their Melbourne triumph, England had won a rare and priceless victory over New Zealand in Wellington. I can still vividly recall Dallaglio taking apart the young Rodney So’oialo in a duel of the back rows, taking the ball from So’oialo like a playground bully terrorising a nipper.

The third phase has been the past three seasons, no less extraordinary than his youthful years, in which the sight of him battling against, and adapting to, the decline in his monumental physical powers, has been as compelling as anything.

It would be a nonsense to suggest that his powers had diminished considerably. Before he was replaced yesterday, he had put in three or four big tackles in the last four or five phases of play of his career. He was still worth a place on merit in the Wasps’ back row, even though the club have six players of true international class and two of world class, besides himself.

However, Dallaglio has compensated in other ways as the speed has declined slightly and the engine started to splutter, just occasionally.

He has become as wise as a jackal, and if you know exactly from your vast experience what is going to happen two and three phases ahead, then why do you need burning pace? You will be there ahead of the youngsters.

Frankly, and it is fundamentally a compliment, Lawrence has also influenced games simply by being out there, or by being in the dressing room or even by leading his team out, with that familiar and almost lost-it glower. In this final phase, he has been as influential as he ever was.

Once, I wrote that - admittedly during a period where Dallaglio had been slightly off-form - the estimable Martin Corry should be chosen for England above him. As soon as the phone rang, I knew who it was.

After that, I tended to have Lawrence in every team I ever picked. Not because of his call, because he is one of the most fantastic figures I have come across in decades in the sport.