Wasps beat Leicester 26-16 at Twickenham to claim their fourth Guinness Premiership title in six years. Wasps dominated the opening stages, scoring two decisive first-half tries to give captain Lawrence Dallaglio a victorious send-off in his final club rugby outing. The Tigers threatened a stirring comeback in the second half but missed penalties and durable Wasps defending meant there was just too much ground to recover.

Wasps opened the scoring through a Mark Van Gisbergen penalty after five minutes – due reward for a purposeful opening in which a visibly pumped up Dallaglio led from the front. Despite Wasps' flying start, Leicester remained in touch; a clever kick through the centre from Andy Goode after six minutes drew a knock-on from the Wasps' full-back Van Gisbergen. Leicester held possession in the Wasps 22 before finally winning a penalty, comfortably converted by Goode.

But it was Wasps who scored the first try of the afternoon in the 11th minute. After a decisive dash through the centre from the Wasps backs, aided by able handling from the returning England captain Phil Vickery, flanker Tom Rees forced the ball over from a ruck on the Tigers try line. Van Gisbergen converted to make the score 10-3.

Wasps continued to dominate upfront, shifting the ball left and right with ease. Josh Lewsey, Fraser Waters, and Dominic Waldouck consistently stretched a rattled Leicester backline. A beautiful Riki Flutey sidestep in the 20th minute exposed Leicester's defence yet again, his 20-yard burst through the centre serving as a prelude to another sustained series of attacks in the Leicester 22. The pressure forced Leicester to concede another penalty in the 23rd minute. Van Gisbergen made no mistake to stretch the lead to 10 points.

The Leicester pack were keeping their side in the contest, however. Intelligent kicking from Goode began to turn the Wasps backline, before a 40-yard blindside dash from winger Alesana Tuilagi after 27 minutes led to a penalty. Goode converted to reduce Leicester's deficit to 13-6.

But a third Wasps penalty after 34 minutes stretched their lead again, before the London club scored the decisive try of the game. Simon Shaw and Dallaglio initiated the move, running with the ball in their own half after turning over possession. Two phases later, Wasps switched the ball left, before the impressive Lewsey broke through a poor Ben Herring tackle to race over the line from 20 yards to make it 23-6 at the interval.

Leicester refused to be overpowered, though, and clawed their way back into the game in a pulsating second-half. Tom Varndell handed the Tigers hope in the 55th minute; Goode launched a crosskick to the corner, Geordan Murphy jumped highest to tap the ball infield and the on-running Varndell made it 23-11 with more than half an hour remaining.

Their belief growing, for the first time the reigning champions began to dominate possession against a tiring Wasps side. In the 63rd minute, scrum-half Harry Ellis's blindside dash from a scrum on the line gave the Tigers their second try to bring them within seven points again.

Dallaglio then made an emotional exit and Wasps rallied to regain a foothold in midfield. Van Gisbergen missed a penalty in the 68th minute which would have finally checked the Leicester comeback. A Flutey break led to a desperate Lewsey scramble for the line two minutes later. The Tigers defence held firm but the momentum had shifted again. Wasps won another penalty after 71 minutes. This time, Van Gisbergen narrowly converted to give Leicester breathing space at 26-16 and Wasps were home and dry.

''We are not blessed with the greatest resources in the world but we have the heart and soul," Dallaglio said afterwards. "This is a club that does everything it can for English rugby. We [both teams] were both depleted after the World Cup but this was a fitting final. I feel this is our greatest ever achievement. Tenth in the table at Christmas, it's been a monumental effort. Today was about Wasps. Today was not about me. It was a wonderful team effort.''