I’m told his close friends call him Lol, but he is still very much Lawrence Dallaglio, Rugby Legend and 2003 Rugby World Cup winner to me. I saw this match in Australia and he was awesome.

I have for decades been a Rugby Patron in Kenya, part of the Rugby Patrons Society that raises funds to support underprivileged children.

Dallaglio was our guest speaker at our Rugby Patrons Society dinner in Nairobi on 18th October, keeping us royally entertained, and helping raise valuable funds for our work.

“Now I’m in proper Africa“ raised a cheer !! He has been to South Africa many times but Kenya was a “bucket list” destination. We were delighted to have him.

Dallaglio, the Rugby Patrons and I share a passion for using rugby for charitable work. In the UK Dallaglio founded a charity called Rugby Works which improves the futures of kids excluded from school: developing life skills, raising their aspirations, and improving physical and mental wellbeing.

Education, particularly in maths, science and engineering, has been fundamental to my success, combined with the teamwork and resilience learnt through rugby. So I applaud all Lawrence is doing on this front in the UK, and I am proud of everything that the Rugby Patrons in Kenya do for our own young people.

The day after the dinner, Lawrence was kind enough to come and give a training session with some of the youngsters we support through the RPS and others from Hillcrest School who generously opened their sports ground for us.

It’s always special to sponsor events like this for the RPS and the Hemingways logo sat proudly on the sponsors’ board as Lawrence’s backdrop at the dinner and at the training session.

I was honoured that he came to stay at Hemingways Watamu where I met him for lunch one day. I immediately took to him, liked the guy.

Also very honoured at the dinner to receive a commemorative jacket from the RPS alongside the great man himself. I’m wearing it right now 👍

You can see a snippet of Dallaglio’s after dinner speech as a reel on the RPS Facebook feed, or by clicking on this link.

It was the best Patron’s dinner I’ve ever been to, that was down to Dallaglio. Well attended, Dallaglio was a great speaker and we raised lots of money for our work. My thanks to everyone involved, especially Carol Stemp who organised the whole thing including Dallalgio’s presence.