Lawrence Dallaglio recalls the day 'Welsh supporter gobbed on me'

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio has recalled the miserable April 1999 afternoon when he skippered his country to a Grand Slam-ruining defeat versus Wales at Wembley. The Welsh were using the home of English football as their ground in that year’s Five Nations due to the construction of the Millennium Stadium on the site of the old Arms Park in Cardiff.

Clive Woodward’s England were red-hot favourites to win the final fixture of the tournament and complete the Grand Slam. However, six points ahead with two minutes remaining, Dallaglio opted to go for touch from a penalty and not kick at goal to guarantee the victory.

Failure to secure a try from the lineout left England vulnerable and they were beaten in dramatic fashion, Scott Gibbs dancing through the defence and Neil Jenkins converting for the 32-31 win that crowned the watching-on Scotland as champions.

Jonah Lomu destroys England at 1995 RWC | RPTV

Jonah Lomu scores four unbelievable tries against England at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. You can watch a full replay of the match on the new RugbyPass app.

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Jonah Lomu destroys England at 1995 RWC | RPTV

Jonah Lomu scores four unbelievable tries against England at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. You can watch a full replay of the match on the new RugbyPass app.

Download now

Dallaglio has now recalled the defeat in the debut episode of Stick to Rugby, the new show he is presenting with David Flatman, Katy Daley-McLean and Tom Shanklin. Martin Johnson, who succeeded Dallaglio as the England captain after the defeat to the Welsh, was their studio guest and here is how their recollection of 1999 unfolded:

Flatman: Right, I want to talk about captaincy. Lawrence, you were England captain. I’ve forgotten how that ended, it was given to Martin. Any awkwardness? What happened?

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Dallaglio: I’ll tell you what happened. For a start, when I came into the England team I wasn’t captain and when I left the England team and I wasn’t the captain, so there is no divine right or desire to be England captain actually. But Martin was skipper of the Lions in ’97, which was of our greatest every rugby experiences. And then Clive, for some strange reason, chose me as England captain.

Flatman: Do you think he thought you were unmanageable otherwise?

Dallaglio: He didn’t know me! Anyway, going back to 1999 we had that terrible decision I made. I don’t forget Martin looking at me in the game. We lost because of my decision but we gave away so many penalties in the first half but whatever, I’m still taking the blame. And Martin goes, ‘Are you sure that is the right call?’ I went, ‘Yeah’. To be fair, he backed me. He probably should have said, ‘No, change your mind’. But he backed me and it was a terrible decision.

And do you know what made it worse? It was when I had to walk all the way off the pitch with my mates and not only had Wales beaten us in Wembley, it meant that Scotland won the last-ever Five Nations title as well so it’s a double stab.

As I was walking down the tunnel I knew it was all down to me really and this Welsh supporter gobbed on me, straight in the face, massive greenie straight in my face. At moments like that, I understand why Eric Cantona did what he did. I felt like kung-fuing him.

I walked into that dressing room and it was like death. There were grown men in tears. Winning and losing is very different nowadays. I mean, we hated losing. I didn’t speak to anyone for about six or seven days, didn’t go out of the house.

Then when I did go out of the house I was on the front page of the News of the World, so that didn’t work out so well. It wasn’t my finest week. We lost the Grand Slam to Wales at Wembley and the following week, I went deep underground in disguise and Martin was made England captain.

With Dallaglio unable to tour that summer as he was charged by the RFU with bringing the game into disrepute, the captaincy passed to Johnson and he ultimately went on to lead England to Rugby World Cup glory four years later in Australia.

Dwelling on the modern-day role of England captain, Dallaglio suggested that it should be a rule that every club in the Gallagher Premiership has an Englishman as their captain to ensure that Steve Borthwick’s Test side is as experienced as possible when it comes to decision making in the role.

Speaking with Johnson, Dallaglio said: “How long were you captain of Leicester? I was made Wasps captain in 1995 and was captain right the way through to 2007. You were captain of Leicester for a long, long time. I think there should be a ruling that every club in the Premiership should be captained by an England player and you get that experience.

“Being captain, everyone does their jobs but it is something you can become better and better at the more you play because you become a better rugby player and you have got good people around you. I don’t think England have had anywhere near enough leadership within their senior player group for a long, long time. Maro Itoje has only just become captain of Saracens. He is a world-class player but he is still finding his way.”