Rees looks to life after Dallaglio
Tom Rees has backed Wasps to prosper from Lawrence Dallaglio's legacy as the Guinness Premiership champions begin life after their inspirational leader.
Tom Rees has backed Wasps to prosper from Lawrence Dallaglio's legacy as the Guinness Premiership champions begin life after their inspirational leader.
Dallaglio's 339th and final Wasps appearance ended with him lifting yet another major trophy – the Londoners' fourth league title in six seasons.
Leicester tried valiantly to gatecrash his retirement party, but Wasps' 26-16 victory made it a magnificent seven unbeaten Twickenham finals as club captain – four Premiership crowns, two Heineken Cups and an Anglo-Welsh success.
The 35-year-old England World Cup winner will leave a huge gap in Wasps' mental and physical armoury.
And England flanker Rees, one of the contenders to succeed him as skipper, admitted he will be missed.
“We will all miss Lawrence a huge amount,” Rees said.
“He has brought a huge presence to the team, both as a player and a leader.
“And I am confident from that mentality he has worked really hard to instil, we will go forward from here.
“Guys like Lawrence don't come around too often, so you need someone (as captain) who is going to be fairly comfortable with that weight on his shoulders.
“We have been built around Lawrence, and now, hopefully, we will move forward.
“Lawrence has made the point clear – it has never been about him, it has been about Wasps. He didn't talk about how he felt or about doing this for himself, it's always been about us as a collective.
“Whoever gets given it (the captaincy), we will get behind him and get on with it.
“I don't think there is a need for a fuss surrounding it because the guys will get behind whoever gets the armband.”
Dallaglio's last major contribution in a Wasps shirt before he was substituted to a standing ovation arrived as Leicester threatened an unlikely fightback.
Scrum-half Harry Ellis' darting try, which came just six minutes after wing Tom Varndell struck following defensive hesitancy between Mark Van Gisbergen and Josh Lewsey took Tigers to within striking distance.
But as Andy Goode lined up the conversion attempt, so Dallaglio rallied his troops behind the posts for a final time.
“When Leicester scored their second try, perhaps the ship was starting to rock a little bit,” Rees said.
“Lawrence just said to cool it down and go back to what we had been doing.
“We had sat off, Leicester got a lot more physical and were coming on to the ball, and we needed to go back to what we were doing and get ourselves on the front foot.”