Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972) is an English retired rugby union player. He is a former captain of England, and a 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
Dallaglio played as a flanker or number eight for London Wasps and never played for another club, having arrived at Sudbury as a teenager. Playing in all three positions in the back row, he played 85 caps for England, and was part of the team that won the 2003 World Cup. He is one of a very small number of players to have won both the Rugby World Cup and Sevens World Cup. He went on three tours with the British & Irish Lions, winning three caps.
Dallaglio now regularly works as a pundit on television rugby coverage and on radio.
Dallaglio was born in Shepherd's Bush, London. He was educated at King's House School in Richmond and boarded at Ampleforth College where he was nicknamed "Del Boy". He attained his A-levels at The Oxford School of Learning, and studied Property Development at Kingston University. His sister Francesca, a 19-year-old student ballerina, died in the Marchioness disaster in 1989.
In 1985, as a 12-year-old chorister in the King's House School choir, Dallaglio and 20 other choristers sang backing vocals on the song "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner. This only became known in 2005, when the Musicians' Union, having realised that the choristers had not been paid royalties on the record, attempted to track them down. As part of the same choir, Dallaglio sang at the wedding of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Because Dallaglio's father, Vincenzo, is Italian, and his English-born mother, Eileen, was of Irish descent he was eligible to play for both Italy and Ireland, as well as England, and in the early 1990s he turned down an invitation to play for Ireland.
Dallaglio had a good season in 1999–2000, when he regained the club captaincy. Although Wasps' league form was disappointing, he led them to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup and to a second successive Tetley's Bitter Cup victory.
Dallaglio returned from an ankle injury early in the 2006–07 domestic season to reclaim the club captaincy at Wasps, but an indifferent Guinness Premiership season ended with them failing to qualify for the play-offs for the first time since the introduction of the knockout system. Dallaglio and his teammates saved their best performances for the Heineken Cup; he led the club to its second European championship win on 20 May 2007. The final, played at Twickenham, set a world record for the highest attendance figure for a club rugby match (at around 82,000). Wasps' opponents, Leicester Tigers had already won the EDF Energy Cup and the Guinness Premiership trophies and were favourites to achieve an unprecedented Treble, especially as they had beaten Wasps 40–26 at Welford Road less than a month earlier, but Wasps won the game, 25–9.
In the following season he joined London Wasps late because of the Rugby World Cup. He returned to find London Wasps struggling near the bottom of the Guinness Premiership. Wasps' fortunes quickly changed; they made it through the group in the EDF Cup, and started climbing up the table. they narrowly failed to make it out of their Heineken Cup group. They lost out to Munster, the eventual winners, but could have qualified if they had beaten them away in their final pool game.
They soon hit top form in the Premiership; they reached the play-offs and drew a home match against Bath. They won the game 21-6, but lost rising star Danny Cipriani to an injury. Leicester Tigers beat Gloucester to qualify for the Premiership final. This match was to be Dallaglio's last match, and it was to be played in front of a capacity crowd of 81,600 at Twickenham. They were made to fight, but eventually won 26-16. Dallaglio later said it was Wasps' greatest Premiership title, noting the damaging effect the Rugby World Cup had on their squad. In the 67th minute of the Premiership final, Dallaglio was substituted, and received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Dallaglio made a sly appearance, at blindside flanker, for London Wasps "A" Team in the Guinness A League on 8 September 2008. He was getting game time before he captained an England XV for the Help For Heroes game at Twickenham on 20 September later that month.
Dallaglio was a member of the inaugural World Cup Sevens-winning squad with England in 1993.
He was then a surprise choice for the 1994 England tour to South Africa. Yet the following winter he was not guaranteed a place in Wasps' back-row. He made his debut for England in November 1995 as a substitute against the Springboks and toured South Africa as a member of the 1997 British & Irish Lions squad. He was given the England captaincy in the autumn of 1997 by new coach Clive Woodward, taking over from Phil de Glanville. The other candidate for the job, Martin Johnson, had led the Lions tour, but Dallaglio was preferred.
After another strong season in 2000–01, he was selected for his second Lions tour, but an injury in the last game of the domestic season, against Bath, meant he was doubtful for the trip to Australia. The Lions passed him fit but the knee gave way in a mid-week match, cutting short his tour and forcing him to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Dallaglio was a key member of England's 2003 Grand Slam and World Cup-winning side, being the only player to play in every minute of England's World Cup campaign. With the World Cup win, he became one of the two players – the other being England scrum half Matt Dawson – to have won the World Cup in both the 15- and 7-a-side competitions.
Dallaglio was re-appointed as captain after Martin Johnson retired. In August 2004, Dallaglio announced his retirement from the national team due to "the brutal demands of international rugby" but after being selected for the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand he changed his mind and made himself available for international selection again.
He regained the captaincy in 2004 after Johnson's retirement from international rugby, but without Johnson the team played poorly, and Dallaglio announced his retirement from international rugby on 31 August 2004.
Despite his international retirement, Dallaglio was called up for his third Lions tour in 2005 but he fractured his ankle during the first tour match, against Bay of Plenty on 4 June, and did not play again during the tour.