Being Kiwis, the staff had all been watching the game...Poor old Lawrence Dallaglio (the man for whom the word 'imperious' was defined) has had his Lions tour ended by an innocuous looking slip on some dewy grass in Rotorua only twenty minutes into the first game (final: Lions 34, BoP 20).

"I went straight to hospital in my kit in Rotorua and, being Kiwis, the staff had all been watching the game and saw the replays of the injury numerous times and knew what would be arriving."They were waiting to help and were fantastic. The ankle joint had to be realigned slightly, under sedation, to ensure it mended in the best way."

Hooray for the NZ Health Service! All standing around watching the footy on a Saturday night!

Dislocated ankle, broken fibia. Ouch. And he knew it straight away - his hands shot to his head in despair. He knew that that was it. It took ten minutes to get his enormous frame onto a stretcher, an ignimony that has never befallen him before...

I was lying there thinking: I have never been taken off on a stretcher before in my career. Even when I did my knee in 2001, I still played on.

My three children thought it was very funny that daddy had to be taken off on a golf cart.

His wife, perhaps, wasn't quite so amused. Clive Woodward definitely wasn't amused, and the onfield Lions, naturally, freaked out and blew a 17 point lead as they realised that all the talk of provincial teams attempting to 'soften up' them up before the Tests, is, in fact completely true. As Clive said himself: "...he will be sorely missed but that's also why we have 45 players on this tour, because of these things."

It's a pity it had to be Lawrence though. He has great drama factor. For a guy who looks so steadfast, upstanding, and the most likely to lead the spitfire squadron on a suicide mission into the heart of Germany, it's hard to believe he's such a cheat. He got pinged for one penalty about five minutes before his injury and looked up at the ref with a look of total disbelief in his eyes as to make me think that, perhaps, he had been wronged. As he jogged back into position, he markedly shook his head, and scowled at the injustice of it all. But then, in the slo-mo replay, he was blatantly in the wrong. Brilliant stuff. He will be missed.
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