DRUGS BOAST COSTS DALLAGLIO POUNDS 25,000

THE former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio was fined pounds
15,000 yesterday for bringing the sport into disrepute.

He must also pay pounds 10,000 of the costs incurred by the Rugby
Football Union in bringing the unprecedented charge, but he will be
free to play for his country in the forthcoming World Cup.

A second charge that he had taken drugs in a hotel room during the
British Isles tour of South Africa in 1997 had been dropped after the
RFU disciplinary officer, Roy Manock, accepted a new explanation from
the player.

After first denying he had been in the room, Dallaglio admitted he had
been there, but said that had lied to an inquiry panel to protect
other players.

The allegations stemmed from claims he made about the use of Ecstasy
and cocaine to two journalists from the News of the World who posed as
executives of Gillette, the toiletries company.

Encouraged by his agent to impress the alleged executives in meetings
designed to secure a pounds 1 million sponsorshop deal, Dallaglio said
two fellow Lions on the 1977 tour were involved in
drug-taking.

Sir Oliver Popplewell, the High Court judge who chaired the hearing,
said: "We accept the inquiry panel view that to accuse two fellow
players of involvement with drugs, now admitted to be false, while
trying to obtain a financially rewarding contract is a matter of grave
concern. That he should lie to the enquiry panel is also to his
discredit and casts doubt on his judgment as an England captain."

George Carman, QC, who appeared for Dallaglio, said that the player
had suffered enough and claimed that the disciplinary panel was
looking at the very lowest end of the scale of bringing the game into
disrepute.

Yesterday's events at Twickenham bring down the curtain on a
thoroughly unhappy episode which began on May 23 when the News of the
World published its drug allegations.It is not only Dallaglio's
reputation that has suffered: as captain of England, Dallaglio could
command a more substantial fee from sponsors and for public
appearances than he will as merely a member of the squad. And he is
unlikely ever to captain his country again.

As a player his annual earnings, from his club and country, are around
pounds 200,000 but that amount would be doubled by advertising
contracts, two of which fall due for renewal shortly.

Both the RFU prosecution team and his own defence agreed that no
evidence of drug-taking "as a professional rugby player" existed,
which is why the RFU dropped the second charge of taking recreational
drugs.

But the volume of publicity resulting from Dallaglio's actions,
Richard Lissack QC submitted for the RFU, had damaged the game "not
just from what he said but from the effect that what was said, was
said by the captain of the England team at a time when he was a
popular and respected figure in the game."

After the hearing, Dallaglio said: "Knowing you are innocent is one
thing. Proving it has been another. It has been a long and difficult
battle and I am content with the outcome."