Wasps provide fitting Dallaglio swansong

R UnionLawrence Dallaglio was given the perfect send-off as Wasps beat Leicester 26-16 in the Guinness Premiership final.

The London side started the better of the two sides at Twickenham and took an early lead with a penalty from Mark van Gisbergen, but Andy Goode kicked one of his own to level matters in the seventh minute.

Some sustained Wasps pressure lead to the opening try with the forwards camped on the Leicester line for a number of phases, before Tom Rees barged over.

Van Gisbergen added the extras as well as another penalty to open up a 13-3 lead, before Goode kept the Tigers in touch with a kick of his own.

However, Shaun Edwards' men were thoroughly dominating and they added another penalty before Josh Lewsey weaved his way through some static defence to score under the posts.

The Tigers were staring down the barrel at half-time, losing 23-6, but to their credit they gave it their all in the second period.

Geordan Murphy flicked a high ball into the path of Tom Varndell, who touched down in the corner in the 54th minute, but the conversion was missed.

Seven minutes later after some good Leicester forward play, Harry Ellis peeled away down the blindside and outstripped the cover to make the score 23-16, but again Goode missed the kick.

Dallaqlio bowed out from the sport on 67 minutes to a huge ovation from the crowd and Van Gisbergen ended the scoring with a penalty on 70 minutes.

The Tigers did keep going to the final whistle but Wasps stood firm to collect their fourth Premiership trophy.


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