Gatland: Dallaglio thrives on responsibility

Clive Woodward's decision to re-appoint Lawrence Dallaglio to the England captaincy has been applauded by the man who works closest with him at club level.

And London Wasps director of rugby Warren Gatland believes that Dallaglio will relish the double challenge of leading both his club and country to further honours.

"Lawrence just thrives on that sort of extra responsibility," said Gatland, the former Ireland coach. "I'm very confident indeed that he will do a really good job during what has to be a kind of transition period for England. Taking someone like Martin Johnson out of the team, both as captain and player, leaves a very big hole to fill, and Clive knows that. He needed someone with a strong persona to guide them through this post-World Cup period and Lawrence is the perfect candidate to follow Johnson. I'm not surprised he was chosen.

"He is natural leader and a worthy man to lead England at this time.

England's success at the World Cup will mean that every team they now come up against will want to become the first to beat them, and I think Lawrence is the sort of guy who will love that sort of added pressure and responsibility.

"As for the club side of things, myself and a few of the players, like Paul Volley, have already had a joke or two with Lawrence about whether the Wasps captaincy is now suddenly going to become vacant - but he has just laughed!"

Gatland saw no added significance, though, to Woodward's decision to appoint Dallaglio on a match-by-match basis. "Clive says that's the norm, anyway, and as ever it depends on whether the captain stays fit and in form. Hopefully, Lawrence will stay fit both for us and for England over the next few months."

Woodward clearly decided he needed a caretaker captain of battle-hardened experience to take England through the immediate post-World Cup period.