It's in the Blood: My Life

by Lawrence Dallaglio

As a Premiership, World Cup and Grand Slam winner, no one better embodies the charisma and the colour of English rugbys greatest era than Lawrence Dallaglio. He has some story to tell, not just of the formidable exploits on the field, but an extraordinary life off it. His only sister, Francesca, was the youngest to perish in the Marchioness disaster and her death at 19 remains the great sadness of his life. In addition to this and his much-talked about England exploits, he also led his club Wasps to the summit of European rugby, winning two Heineken Cups and three consecutive English Premiership titles. Full of drama, controversy and great sadness, Lawrence Dallaglios story the last of the great World Cup heroes is the one every rugby fan has been waiting to read.

Genres: Biography, Autobiography, Sports, Nonfiction

446 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Lorenzo Bruno Nero "Lawrence" Dallaglio, OBE (born 10 August 1972) is a retired English rugby union player and former captain of the English national team. He played as a flanker or number eight for London Wasps and never played for another club, having arrived at Sudbury as a teenager. He was capped in all three positions in the back row, and captained England until a drugs scandal forced his resignation from that role. He is a regular pundit on BT Sport rugby coverage.

Reviews

[Guy]

This book came as quite a surprise.

A rough-tough ginormous rugby player = stale book right?

Wrong!

This is very honest, raw and quite emotional at times.

It covers initially his upbringing, the tragedy of his sister passing away and how the family dealt with it (or not) and his interest developing into a serious career option and subsequent schooling.

Then the bulk of his career is covered with the classic 5/6 nations clashes, both World Cups in depth as well as Heineken Cups and of course Lions tours.

It's enlightening of his teams, Sir Clive Woodwood, the press-sting and loss of captaincy and that final!

I particularly enjoyed some of the stories of what they got up to - drinking, the odd punch up and escapades in South Africa. You have to remember he played when Rugby Union crossed over into professional.

The break up of his marriage is also candidly covered.

Overall I really enjoyed this.

This is not a 'I achieved this, I achieved that' sort of book. It is surprisingly honest.

Buy it.

[Nicholas Matthews]

This book is really tempting me to move all my other five star books down a notch. I was not sure what to expect from this autobiography - how prosaic can rugby players be? Dalaglio does not disappoint; this book tells his life story with a beautifully honest and thoughtful approach. My estimation of him as a player and person has risen enormously and has given me a great deal of respect for him. Don't worry if Rugby isn't your boat, this is a truly entertaining and non-technical read for any sporting fan.

[Kingfan30]

I’m not really into sports, however rugby is one game I can watch. We tend to only watch 6 nations (which I now know was once the five nations) and the World Cup, and while the other half is happy to watch it at home, I prefer a bit of an atmosphere down the pub or even better at a stadium watching it live.

It’s actually a game that brings back many memories for me. I watched England win the World Cup at my friends partners pub which wasn’t officially open, but he let in friends and family to watch it on the big screen - amazing. It also reminds me of a trip to Budapest (bear with!), the young man showing us to our room pointed out a picture and told us that was when the river flood (oo as in moon), poor Toby Flood has forever been Floood for us.

But the thing I love most about a live game is the people! I’ve been offered a swig from a hip flask from a complete stranger because I looked frozen on a cold November day. And we took my elderly in-laws a couple of times and the people around us helped keep an eye on them just as much as we did, in fact one young man went and got my father-in-law a ref-link because he thought he would like it.

Anyway enough reminiscing and back to the book. It was an eye opener, I hadn’t realised how much the game had changed over the years (although the price of tickets getting more and more expensive should have given it away) with Dallaglio being there during this time. It also shows just how much the whole team around you can make or break the game played, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes to what you see on match day. The nice thing is, he doesn’t try and get too technical with his descriptions of the game and he comes across quite honest, down to the troubles his passion for the games caused problems at home.

[Mr Michael R Stevens]

The passion he showed on the pitch comes through in his book, committed, passionate and honest, exactly as he played.
His honesty over his feelings at his sisters untimely death, the difficulties in his relationship and the pitfalls of the England captaincy is plain to see.
I doubt we will see his like in an England shirt for a long time.

[Jordan Powell]

Eloquent, concise, honest and charming. A pleasant read.

[Andy]

Born leader

[Joseph Gethins]

Emotional, motivational and intense

[Mise]

Perfectly enjoyable by the numbers autobiography of an athlete writing a book around the end of their career.

Great stocking filler for an English dad or Wasps fan looking for light reading on the commuter train into their job in Zone 1/2 London

[Sue Brienza]

Obviously I loved it ;o)