English Premiership final: Suddenly the question is not so much whether Leicester can win an unprecedented treble as whether anyone can give them a game. One-sided Premiership finals are hardly a novelty but this was like watching field mice fleeing a combine harvester.

Sunday's European Cup final will be a similar story unless Wasps can somehow shut down the Tigers' seemingly limitless power supply at source.

As it stands the abiding image of the 2007 Premiership season will be of a slim, hunched figure on his knees on the slippery turf clutching his head in his hands. There were still 30 minutes to play but already Gloucester's Ryan Lamb knew the game was up, the cause as hopeless as his ineffectual flap at the unstoppable human cannonball Alesana Tuilagi. Rugby is meant to be a game for all shapes and sizes but it no longer feels like it.

At times the punishment verged on the sadistic; one wanted someone to pull the screens across and call an early halt to young Lamb's slaughter.

Anthony Allen had an equally chastening day but, as his director of rugby, Dean Ryan, stressed, Gloucester were not merely outmuscled in midfield. Having finished on top of the table they had scented something special. Instead, for the second time in five seasons, they were steamrollered.

Wasps, with their hard core of unyielding big men such as Simon Shaw, Tom Palmer, Lawrence Dallaglio, Joe Worsley, Phil Vickery and Raphael Ibanez, will hope to erect a more resilient barricade but the force propelling Leicester towards their apparent destiny looks irresistible. After so many depressing days for England this season Martin Corry is a reborn presence and his fellow backrows, Shane Jennings and Lewis Moody, consistently supply the yin to their captain's yang.

Some felt the absence of Martin Castrogiovanni and Harry Ellis would give Gloucester a sniff; instead Marcos Ayerza and Frank Murphy stepped up to rub their noses in it. Julian White, George Chuter and Ben Kay have also suffered international disappointments; here they re-emerged as masters of their trade.

Ultimately it also mattered little that Murphy's opening try, awarded by the video referee on dubious evidence, was a lucky break. Even had Gloucester not lost two captains - Marco Bortolami with knee trouble on the morning of the game and Peter Buxton with a broken hand - there was no answer to the rampaging Tuilagi or his Pacific Island partner Seru Rabeni.

Tuilagi scored two turbo-charged tries, the first punishing Lamb's weak clearance and the second Gloucester's lack of tactical nous. What sense is there in repeatedly asking a 13st stripling to stand in front of a 19st tank? Gloucester should have rejigged their defensive formation and saved Lamb's bacon. Instead he had his confidence comprehensively casseroled.

At least the young outhalf can draw solace from how Leicester have rebounded from the depths. This time last year six of this same pack were humbled by Sale as Leicester suffered a final mullering for the second consecutive season. It is a tribute to Pat Howard's man management and the work ethic of squad members that many of them have come back not just stronger but better. Had Andy Goode converted more than three of their seven tries, including a well-taken score of his own, Gloucester would have been buried beneath a half-century of points.

As for Wasps, the portents are worrying.

"A good movement game with parity in the physical stakes can stress Leicester," insisted Ryan. "But, if you can't deal with their physicality, it's irrelevant what your tactics are."

Howard may make a change or two in his final selection before returning to the pharmacy business in Australia, but complacency will not be a problem.

"We'll only be satisfied at the end of the season," said Corry.

GLOUCESTER: Walker; Balshaw, Simpson-Daniel, Allen, Foster; Lamb, Richards; Wood, Azam, Nieto; James, Brown; Buxton (capt), Hazell, Narraway.

Replacements: Boer for Buxton (15 mins), Davies for Azam (48 mins), Lawson for Richards (53 mins), Califano for Wood (54 mins), Eustace for James (78 mins). Scores: Try: Lamb. Con: Walker. Pens: Walker 3.

LEICESTER: G Murphy; Rabeni, Hipkiss, Smith, A Tuilagi; Goode, F Murphy; Ayerza, Chuter, White; L Deacon, Kay; Moody, Jennings, Corry (capt).

Replacements: Cullen for Deacon (56 mins), Vesty for Smith (57 mins), Varndell for Rabeni (62 mins), B Youngs for F Murphy, Moreno for White (both 67 mins), Buckland for Chuter, B Deacon for Jennings (both 70 mins) Scores: Tries: F Murphy, Tuilagi 2, Corry, Goode, Jennings, Moody. Cons: Goode 3. Pen: Goode.

Referee: D Pearson(Northumberland).

• Guardian Service