It was a full house, but seldom have so many spectators at England's premier club made so little noise. This, despite the closeness of the scoreline throughout, and the fact that the visitors were acknowledged to be worthy opponents. Was it just the weather, one kept wondering? Yes, it was misty, but the fact that the ball behaved like a bar of soap in the hand must also have had something to do with nerves.
The more players spilled the ball the more they snatched at their next take. In the end it must have been one pass in every two that was ricocheting forward towards the opposition, and the only tactic being employed was the high ball. Perhaps another factor was next weekend's internationals, because apart from the first 14 minutes, so many leading players generated little intensity.
Having never won a league match here - they haven't got within 10 points - Wasps have to go back to a cup tie in 1995 for their last victory on the hard terrain of Welford Road. And 'hard' was truly the word for that encounter, which saw Wasps survive the loss to the sin-bin of two of their most physical forwards, Dean Ryan and Norm Hadley, eventually winning solely through penalty goals.
But the only echo of that yesterday came with the goalkicking. The anticipated battle between Lawrence Dallaglio and Josh Kronfeld, both at number six, never developed. And Wasps were thrown into confusion by a terrible start. A high ball put up by Geordan Murphy hung teasingly in the mist and poor Paul Sampson, the Wasps full-back, endured a nightmare. Realising it was falling behind him, he turned and tried to catch it as it came from over his shoulder, and got nowhere near it.
Leicester were within a whisker of scoring then against the panic-stricken visitors, and soon they were again when a Wasps clearance was charged down and the ball bobbled loose on the line. But, entirely against the run of play, Wasps snatched the first points when Mark Van Gisbergen, a very able deputy for Alex King, delivered a well-struck penalty from the left side.
Tim Stimpson equalised as the first quarter was ending, but he was to miss two penalties in succession, before kicking two in a row, while Van Gisbergen got a second to make it 9-6 at the interval. The Tigers were certainly worth a three-point lead, if not rather more.
Very little else had happened in the half, other than a couple of confrontations that centred on Dallaglio. Over-zealousness at the breakdown brought a penalty for going over the top - it could almost have been a yellow card - and a robust shoulder or two, plus some unkind words, towards senior Tigers forwards.
A Stimpson penalty attempt after the break and one by Van Gisbergen, a little later, turned out to be the major events of the second period, albeit that both missed. There was a huge hoist at the end by Stimpson that came down in front of the Wasps posts. Had the ball squirted free and Leicester scored it would hardly have been a surprise, but it didn't - and the conclusion must be that the second half need hardly have been played.
Leicester: Stimpson; Murphy, Lloyd, Gelderbloom, Booth; Vesty (McMullen 77), Hamilton; Freshwater, West (Chuter 65), Garforth (Tournaire 70), Johnson (capt), Kay, Kronfeld, Back, Corry.
Wasps: Sampson; Rudd (Logan 63), Waters, Denney, Lewsey; Van Gisbergen, Wood (Howley 63); Dowd, Leota, Molloy (Green 63), Shaw, Beardshaw (Birkett 70), Dallaglio (capt), Volley, Scrivener (Lock 70).
Referee: C White (Cheltenham).
