It is too late to expect a sting in the tail in the processional Zurich Premiership but yesterday's defeat, to quote Leicester's Dean Richards, was a "kick up the backside" for the champions elect. European trophies are not won by sides who coast through the final weeks and in Lawrence Dallaglio the Tigers met a man doing precisely the opposite.
Wasps, without their talisman, have struggled badly but Dallaglio's first full 80 minutes for 10 months coincided with his side's best day for a year or more and with his appointment as captain for England's tour of Argentina and South Africa later this year.
If Alex King's 27-point haul was the most obvious difference between the two sides, the watching England manager Clive Woodward could not fail to be just as impressed with Dallaglio's iron will and inspiring leadership.
The result could even be a hasty recall tomorrow to England's squad for Sunday's Six Nations game against Italy, if only to concentrate the minds of the other back-row candidates. Dallaglio, sporting a large purple swelling next to his left eye, certainly oozed quiet satisfaction - "I was up for this game and I think it showed" - but his immediate priority is to ensure Wasps keep pulling away from the horribly congested relegation zone.
Such are the fine margins that Wasps, two points off the bottom before kick-off, ended the day one good win away from potential European qualification. They could even help Leicester by beating Gloucester on Wednesday week, leaving the Tigers requiring only a home win over Newcastle three days later to clinch their fourth straight title. Even Richards, though, conceded his side were comfortably second best here.
"They played a far more physical game than we did," he said. "Some of our players played in the comfort zone and have done for a couple of weeks. If we're going to win anything this year we need to step up a gear."
Dallaglio had a subtly different theory for Leicester's demise. "The problem for them is that game after game they don't get tested physically and when they do it hits them a bit."
If Leicester do have a weakness, it certainly seems to be playing away on the Sabbath. Their only two previous Premiership defeats this season, at Newcastle and Leeds, have both been on Sundays and Richards' tongue-in-cheek solution - "Perhaps we'd better stop going to church" - masked his obvious disappointment afterwards.
When he studies the video he will find no shortage of unoriginal sinners, with Trevor Leota sin-binned for a late barge on Rod Kafer and Darren Garforth following for punching Will Green.
The Wasps lineout was a reliable supply line and with the fly-half Austin Healey kept in check by a ceaseless swarm of defenders, Wasps were never headed from the first half-hour onwards. Between Leicester's two tries - a second-minute effort by Freddie Tuilagi and an injury-time score from Steve Booth - King and Kenny Logan kicked 10 penalties between them and King's two neat drop-goals kept up the momentum.
Warren Gatland, Wasps' new director of rugby, thinks the pack he has inherited is better than the one he used to select for Ireland. All that remains now is to keep his star men fit and as motivated as yesterday.
Wasps: Lewsey (Sampson, 80); Roiser, Waters, Abbott (Denney, 59), Logan; King, Wood; Dowd, Leota (Greening, 70), Green (McKenzie, 76), Shaw, Jones, Worsley, Volley (Lock, 80), Dallaglio (capt).
Pens: King 7, Logan 3. Drop-goals : King 2 .
Sin-bin: Leota, 15.
Leicester: Stimpson; Booth, Gelderbloom (Lloyd, 64), Kafer, Tuilagi; Healey, Hamilton (Goode, 52); Rowntree (Freshwater, 76), West (Cockerill, 67), Garforth, Johnson (capt), Kay, Kronfeld (Balding, 64), Back, Corry.
Tries: Tuilagi, Booth. Con: Stimpson. Pens: Stimpson 4.
Sin-bin: Garforth, 68.
Referee: R Goodliffe (Yorkshire).
· You've read the piece, now have your say. Email your comments, as sharp or as stupid as you like, to the sport.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk.
