Listen to Dallaglio's lecture

Lawrence Dallaglio’s almost volcanic aura has clearly made the leap from the field to the sporting afterlife. Last Tuesday, he became the first recent player to deliver the annual Obolensky Lecture, staged by the All Party Rugby Union Group and sponsored by The Sunday Times.

The prolonged reception given to Dallaglio at the end of his impressive talk at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office indicated that rugby’s audience is as fascinated by him as ever. Dallaglio was straight to the point on the key issue. “What you really want to know from me is what did Josh Lewsey really do to Danny Cipriani last week? It is pretty obvious really. Danny is 20 years old. He is going to become, clearly, one of rugby’s superstars, certainly one of the game’s highest earners. He is currently dating the model Kelly Brook. I mean, how many reasons do you need to knock a guy out?”

But as usual, Dallaglio had a serious point to make about England’s emerging genius. “My take on it is slightly different. I think Josh actually punched him because, ironically, he wanted to keep Danny’s feet firmly on the ground. He wanted to remind him that by making Danny see stars, when he eventually came round, he would remember that everyone at Wasps is actually a star and not just him.”

The lecture ranged far and wide, through all aspects of his extraordinary career and the lessons he could pass on to those trying to follow him, but never strayed too far from the England team, their shocking results since the 2003 World Cup victory and what Dallaglio sees as the vacuum in terms of leadership and rounded personalities which has afflicted the team ever since. “That team was six years in the making. We built a unique England team culture but took inspiration from outside — from American football, Aussie rules. We had the ‘no blame’ culture, we also aimed always to do 100 things 1% better. I’d also like to mention the concept of rotated captaincy — if you rotate the captaincy with Martin Johnson you are unlikely to get it back!

“We had great players in specialist areas and leadership was clearly an integral part of our success in 2003. We had Johnson, Vickery, Hill, Back, Greenwood and Dawson — leaders and personalities all over the pitch. This is an area in which I think England have had, and continue to have, concerns.”

Dallaglio then quoted from a recent article in which Eddie Jones, now of Saracens, brought up the point that the type of character in modern rugby is changing. “An article written by Eddie Jones a few weeks ago raised the same issues. Successful sides depend on leadership. People with genuine life experience are becoming rarer — an ever-growing percentage of players lead what I call the secluded life, having gone from school rugby into academy rugby, and from there into first-team squads. This sport has always produced exceptional leaders; no team has ever won a World Cup without one. But finding them now is a problem.”

Dallaglio stressed his anxiety that too many young players are becoming obsessed with their rugby, their academies and their diets at the expense of developing a wider range of interests and skills outside rugby. Ultimately, Dallaglio believes that to concentrate too severely on rugby adversely affects rugby performance and leadership. He also took issue with the ceaseless wittering about performance being somehow more important than results in the operation of the nation team.

“We also used success for deliberately reinforcing confidence,” he said of the ability of Clive Woodward’s team to win major matches and bathe the whole scene in a rosy glow. “It was similar to Team GB in cycling before the Olympics started. We generated momentum and a will to win.”

Dallaglio left his audience in no doubt as to which group he feels are the true power in rugby, the group which saved the sport as a professional concern after the sudden advent of professionalism.

“Among all the years of chaos, the one group who remained true to their professional commitment were the players. To have gone from a standing start to playing in a professional league overnight was always going to have teething problems, but the players embraced professionalism wholeheartedly and have not deviated from that one inch in the interim period.”

Dallaglio had advice for young players seeking to emulate him. “My mum was very supportive, very caring and ambitious. Her philosophy was: shoot for the moon, and you’ll be among the stars.

“I have had to be ruthless at times — although I was at Wasps for 18 years, if I ever thought they were not competitive I would have left. I’ve often used Jonny Wilkinson as my example of this. I have the utmost respect for Jonny. He is truly a world-class player and a world-class person. Jonny has been incredibly loyal to Newcastle Falcons. But has his loyalty cost him the opportunity to win medals and trophies? Would Steven Gerrard be playing for West Ham? Would Dan Carter be playing for Southland? I’ve used Wasps to get where I wanted to go — and vice versa.”

Questions flew thick and fast, many of them concerning Dallaglio’s future. “I would always wish to come back to rugby,” he said, “but in some ways it is important to step away for a short while.”

But what of the current focal point for former players, Strictly Come Dancing? Would he contemplate a role there? “Well, you can see that there is a current trend among rugby players who appear on that show — they are gobby little scrum-halves! It started with Matt Dawson, followed by Kyran Bracken and, last but not least, Austin Healey. Austin is annoyingly good. Obviously, the Great British public don’t really understand what he is like — because when they do, they won’t be voting for him anymore! But you won’t be seeing me doing that.”

No sequins for Lawrence then, but definitely a new career somewhere, wielding the old and mighty aura.