DALLAGLIO: 'I TRIED DRUGS BUT NEVER DEALT'

LAWRENCE DALLAGLIO admitted yesterday that he told undercover
reporters that he had taken and dealt drugs, but said that he had been
lying to impress people he thought were offering him a business deal.

Dallaglio, 26, who resigned as England rugby captain on Monday night
and withdrew from the team which leaves for Australia today, said he
had experimented with drugs as a young man. He strongly denied ever
having used them as a player, and said he was now "passionately"
opposed to drug use.

Speaking publicly for the first time since allegations that he had
taken cocaine and Ecstasy on a British Isles tour and had been a drug
dealer in his teens, Dallaglio admitted it was likely he did say the
words attributed to him in a News of the World report on Sunday.

"Everything I have been quoted as saying, I must believe that I said
in the interview," he said.

Dallaglio, at a press conference at the Rugby Football Union's
headquarters at Twickenham, said that the two journalists had
discussed a plan to fund inner-city rugby, and had initiated the drug
talk. He described it as an "elaborate set-up".

Andrew Morris, a director of Dallaglio's management company, and a
member of a growing team advising the Wasps flanker, said the
journalists posed as senior executives from Gillette, saying the
company wanted to sponsor an inner-city rugby programme of which
Dallaglio would be the figurehead. He was to have endorsed a new
product range across Europe for UKP500,000 over two years. They had
headed writing paper, business cards, a fax number and an e-mail
address to an advertising company purporting to represent Gillette.

Dallaglio said: "These reporters were openly admitting to me their
confessions of what they had done, what they were into, what they
enjoyed in life and therefore they were leading me by those
allegations of their own behaviour into suggesting what I might do.

"I played along with that game, totally stupidly and foolishly, and
created stories which simply weren't true in an attempt to fit in with
them and obviously try to impress them in some way."

He said that he had undergone many random drug tests and all had
proved negative. "I have two young children, so I'm well aware of the
implications of drugs," he said.

He is being advised by Sara Pearson, a public relations expert, who
was called in by his management company on Monday, and is taking
advice on the possibility of legal action against the newspaper.

Asked if the player had been advised not to mention the death of his
sister Francesca, who died in the 1989 Marchioness disaster, Ms
Pearson said yesterday: "It would be a totally cheapskate way to
explain [the drug use as a young man], to put it down to something as
tragic as that. Lawrence would never do that."

Dallaglio, educated at the Roman Catholic public school Ampleforth,
said he had never lied to his family, his club, or the RFU. He added
later: "I've come here today to tell you the truth."

Asked if he had told the reporters the names of two other players
involved in the South African drug-taking

allegations, he said: "There were no drugs taken on that
trip."

As part of its investigation, the RFU will analyse video and four
hours of audio tape held by the News of the World. The three-man
investigation panel will be chaired by Sir John Kay, a High Court
judge, and includes Bob Rogers, a lawyer who is chairman of the RFU
games regulations committee, and Alan Stevens, a retired detective
superintendent who is the RFU Council member for Devon.

Dallaglio has given blood and urine samples to the RFU, which are
being analysed by the Sports Council.

He was backed yesterday by Wasps and Clive Woodward, the England
coach, who said he believed the player could rejoin the England side
"shortly".