Rugby English League final Anyone expecting a confession after the larceny that saw Gloucester deprived of the Premiership title here on Saturday was doomed to disappointment. Warren Gatland, Wasps' director of rugby, did not even have the decency to blush.

"I think people are making a big issue of the 15 points," he said. "We all knew the rules to start with. I think at the moment we're the best team in England and we deserve the trophy. Gloucester will feel aggrieved because they've been the most consistent team all season. But you've got to look at other factors. For example, we put out the higher proportion of England-qualified players."

The Wasps captain Lawrence Dallaglio was as positive off the field as he had been on it. "Everyone bought into the new format and, whether you like it or not, we deserve to be champions," he said with a clenched fist, determined to sound plausible.

"You've got to face the facts." He added: "Gloucester played their best rugby at the start of the season. For some time they were the best side. But you've got to go out and play like champions and that's not what Gloucester did. If we won by six or seven points and they looked rusty you could have made an argument.

"But they were beaten today by a team that has been the best in the country since Christmas. We have won 17 of our last 19 matches and we deserved this victory. I've been upset by people blaming us. We just played to the rules."

As Gloucester's vast army of supporters mooched away, like a melting and oversized cherry ice-cream, Gatland at least conceded that their team had not benefited from a break from the game. "Three weeks is probably too long," he said. "It must have been very difficult for some of their players who are leaving the club. I thought three or four of their forwards were really struggling from the first 15 minutes of the game. We just wanted to play at pace and see if they could live with us. "

Dallaglio said of Gatland: "When Warren arrived at the club we were bottom of the Premiership, didn't know what ground we were going to be playing at the following season and were in a bit of a pickle. Since then there's been nothing short of a transformation."

But this was not a good afternoon for the invention of Mr William Webb Ellis. Everyone associated with Gloucester knows they are the real champions but record books are heartless tomes and what happened here will leave scar tissue.

Obviously the one bleak principle to emerge is that pacing is important - that, like Wasps, clubs should start to play at Christmas, have a real push at Easter, rest important players from time to time and concentrate on finishing in the top three.

Gloucester were simply mugged. They failed to heed the immortal advice of Ray Gravell: "You've got to get your first tackle in early - even if it's late." The meek may inherit the earth but never the turf of Twickenham.