A degree in rocket science is not required to appreciate the pyrotechnics of this season's Guinness Premiership campaign. PA Sport's Andrew Baldock writes

Even though almost a third of it was played while England were salvaging something extraordinary from their rollercoaster World Cup experience in France, the Premiership still delivered.

The play-off race provided gripping entertainment, especially during the regular league season's final weekend when Leicester defied their detractors by staying on course for a successful title defence.

Sale Sharks painfully missed out, as did a resurgent Harlequins under Dean Richards' masterful direction, while Bath - whose 45-point first-half blitz against Saracens will live long in the memory - also ultimately failed.

And as for Gloucester? How long have you got?

Table-toppers three times in six seasons of Premiership play-offs, but the damning fact they have still to lift silverware will surely leave deep scars at Kingsholm and mean major fall-out during the summer months.

The only truly predictable event this season was an outclassed Leeds Carnegie's relegation back to National League One. They won just two games, conceded more than 700 points and will be replaced by a hugely-ambitious Northampton next term.

Yet for all the thrills and spills and emergence of exciting new talent like Danny Care, Dominic Waldouck, Miles Benjamin and Matt Banahan, next week's Premiership final might just prove an anti-climax.

For a ninth time in 11 seasons since the Premiership began, Leicester or Wasps will be crowned champions.

Not even the most fanatical Leicester supporters could have imagined Tigers battling it out at Twickenham. Frankly, they've proved an average team for much of this season.

But last-gasp victories over Harlequins and Gloucester mean the fourth-best side in England - correct, if you use final league positions as your guide - are one win away from lifting silverware.

Leicester though, somehow find a way of winning the games that count, while Wasps have a perfect opportunity to bid their iconic captain Lawrence Dallaglio the title-winning farewell he undoubtedly deserves.

For all the magical rugby played by Bath, Gloucester's fleeting brilliance and the occasional delights produced by clubs such as Quins, Sale and London Irish, their domestic seasons ended inside the distance.

Bath, for instance, still haven't won a major trophy since 1998, and Gloucester just cannot crack the formula for Premiership success.

Big clubs both, but also both big failures when it comes to threatening the Leicester/Wasps dominance of English rugby.

To the nine Premiership titles, England's heavyweight duo can add four Heineken Cup triumphs and two Anglo-Welsh Cup successes during that same 11-year period.

So, despite what some of the Premiership think, they really do still rule the roost.

Brace yourselves for attritional, rather than classical, rugby at Twickenham next week.

When the chips are down, Leicester thrive on grinding out victories no-one seriously expects, while Wasps are bound to miss stricken fly-half Danny Cipriani's game-breaking gifts.

At the end of the day, maybe it doesn't matter what sort of match these two fierce rivals produce. You have to be in it to win it, and once again there is no-one else in sight.

Gloucester and Bath, admittedly, will be back to threaten them next season, and I like the look of Irish - despite their rugby director Brian Smith being poised for full-time England duties - yet is there genuinely a new kid on the block out there?

The answer, I believe, lies just off junction six of the M5.

It might not happen next term, or the one after that, but maybe in five years' time Worcester Warriors will be a club everyone is talking about throughout England and Europe.

Worcester, European Challenge Cup finalists this weekend, mean business on and off the pitch.

Rugby director Mike Ruddock is building a high-class squad packed with glittering overseas talent and home-grown products from Warriors' outstanding academy system, while multi-millionaire Worcester owner Cecil Duckworth's ambition knows no bounds.

Sixways Stadium is currently undergoing an £8million summer facelift in readiness for next season, and there will be more to come on the road to what Duckworth firmly believes can be sustained success.

Leicester and Wasps might have it all to themselves at the moment, but Worcester, unquestionably, are building something special.

Watch this space.

My Guinness Premiership team of the season: Ben Foden (Sale Sharks); James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), Luke McAlister (Sale Sharks), Olly Barkley (Bath), Tom Varndell (Leicester); Danny Cipriani (Wasps), Michael Claassens (Bath); Nick Wood (Gloucester), Lee Mears (Bath), Matt Stevens (Bath), Danny Grewcock (Bath), Nick Kennedy (London Irish), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Akapusi Qera (Gloucester), Jordan Crane (Leicester).

Replacements: Aleki Lutui (Worcester), Jason Hobson (Bristol), Bob Casey (London Irish), Michael Lipman (Bath), Danny Care (Harlequins), Dominic Waldouck (Wasps), Miles Benjamin (Worcester).