Wasps 26 Leicester 16: WHEN HISTORIANS chart the development of professional rugby union, Saturday's events will rank among the milestones. Even as Lawrence Dallaglio bade farewell, it was impossible not to wander away through a world-record crowd for a club fixture and not feel confident the game will flourish, even in the big man's high-profile absence. Those fans who still regard Twickenham finals as parochial sideshows mostly played and watched by middle-class men with wobbly stomachs would scarcely recognise the sport these days.
Everything from the dynamism of Wasps' first-half performance to Dallaglio's generous post-match tribute to his fellow lionheart Alastair Hignell, the retiring BBC commentator whose struggle against the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis has been such a triumph of human spirit over physical frailty, underlined how far top-level rugby has come since both men began their respective careers.
For the first time, too, Ian McGeechan reckoned he could see more Wasps flags than Leicester ones around the stadium, no mean achievement for a club that has often led a nomadic existence. The king may be abdicating but the dynasty he helped build looks in very decent shape.
If a mark of a player is the galvanising effect he has on others, there have been few more influential men in oval-ball history. Not since Ian Botham has English sport waved goodbye to such a larger-than-life character.
To judge his final competitive game in isolation, however, would be like separating Boadicea from her chariot. The Wasps forwards were irresistible in the first half, with Simon Shaw, James Haskell, Raphael Ibanez and Rees all at their rumbling best. They were so dominant initially that Danny Cipriani's absence was barely apparent.
Riki Flutey was a persistent threat and created the turnover that prefaced Wasps' first try by Rees, who crashed through Boris Stankovich as if he was the Lord Mayor of London. Mark van Gisbergen kept chipping away in his unobtrusive manner and the game looked dead when Josh Lewsey picked a nice line between the unlikely midfield combination of Ben Herring and Ben Kay.
In such circumstances it was to Leicester's vast credit that they "won" the second-half 10-3 despite four missed goal attempts by Andy Goode and the deflating effect of the afternoon's only real blot: the International Rugby Board must do more to prevent games being compromised by uncontested scrums.
When Wasps indicated that Tim Payne and Phil Vickery were unable to continue even the never-say-die Martin Corry knew the game was up. His complaint to the referee, Wayne Barnes, was valid enough, despite Harry Ellis's sharply taken try around the fringe of the first uncontested scrum. To replace a limping Payne with a fit Joe Worsley gave Wasps an advantage and the loophole is being exploited too often.
WASPS: Van Gisbergen; Sackey, Waters, Waldouck (Staunton, 79), Lewsey; Flutey, Reddan (McMillan, 79); Payne (Worsley, 60), Ibanez (Ward, 60), Vickery (Barnard, h-t), Shaw, Palmer, Haskell, Rees, Dallaglio (capt; Hart, 67). Tries: Rees, Lewsey. Cons: Van Gisbergen 2. Pens: Van Gisbergen 4.
LEICESTER: G Murphy; Varndell, Hipkiss (Erinle, h-t), Mauger, Tuilagi; Goode, Ellis (Laussucq, 79); Stankovich (Ayerza, 56), Davies (Kayser, 47), White, Wentzel (Blaze, 53), Kay, Corry (capt), Herring (Croft, 56), Crane. Tries: Varndell, Ellis. Pens: Goode 2.
Referee: W Barnes (RFU).
