"There was, as there has never been before, a sense of this as truly English club rugby's big day." Huw Richards reports from the English season finale at Twickenham.

Unless something spectacular happens in the next few months, it seems unlikely that 2008 will go down as a vintage year in English rugby. The national team finished second in the Six Nations, but it did not really feel that good, while the clubs fell back from pretty much monopolising the later stages of the Heineken in 2007 to failing to provide a finalist.

It may just, though, prove to be the year when the Premiership final was accepted as a true and worthy climax to the domestic season, outside Gloucester at least. Wasps and Leicester gave us a contest worthy of the occasion's pretensions, while their fans not only filled Twickenham to its 80,000 plus capacity - reported to be a record for a club game - but rocked it to its substantial foundations. There was, as there has never been before, a sense of this as truly English club rugby's big day.

None of this, of course, would have counted for much if we had been treated to one of the blowouts that have so often disfigured the occasion.

Instead we got a Wasps display that, particularly in the first half, was worthy of winning any trophy followed by a Leicester response that was admirable - as their efforts over the previous couple of weeks have been - in its sheer bloody-minded refusal to accept defeat. The right team won, but the losers went away with both pride and their sense of their own potential enhanced.

Not the least striking aspect of that vast crowd was the huge, voluble contingent waving yellow flags and cheering on the Wasps. Who could have guessed that there could be so many of them?

Oculists say that yellow is the easiest colour to spot, meaning that those banners caught the eye more easily than those of the Tigers, but it certainly seemed that they achieved the rare feat of both outnumbering and outshouting the Leicester following.

And of course they got what they came to see - Lawrence Dallaglio achieving the perfect finale that he and Wasps denied to Martin Johnson when the same teams met three years ago - going out amid plaudits and a shower of champagne as he lifted the trophy.

He lasted 67 minutes, started Wasps second try with an adept pick-up and switch to the admirable Simon Shaw, got feistily into a couple of confrontations with Dan Hipkiss and Alesana and Tuilagi and capped it all, at a moment when he could have been forgiven for self-preoccupation, with a graceful tribute to another of the afternoon's distinguished retirees, BBC correspondent and former England full-back Alastair Hignell.

He even, unless the Reflink soundtrack had a special Dallaglio-silencer, left the role of chief debater in an afternoon-long dialogue on the rules with referee Wayne Barnes to opposite number Martin Corry, who supplied the soundbite of the afternoon (and possibly the season), with his response to the introduction of uncontested scrums after Wasps had lost a second injured prop: "we're f****d now, aren't we".

That they were, though, owed rather more to the efforts of Wasps flanker Tom Rees, who once again emphasised what a force he will be if he ever gets a reasonably long injury-free run.

If the happiest moment of an outstanding display was the 12th minute try, its keynote came just after half-time as he attacked a rolling phalanx of Tigers forwards, split them and stole the ball from its carrier.

If he and Scotland's John Barclay have a trouble-free 2009 Six Nations Martyn Williams will have a serious challenge for his Lions place, and the Springboks some serious trouble in the loose.

Leicester will take away memories of that terrific comeback to add to their extraordinary feats over the last two weeks, fruits of an extraordinary regular season campaign that saw six teams carry serious hopes not only of a playoff place, but of a possible place at the top of the draw, into the last few weeks.

As much as the final itself, the last day with its improbable drama as Leicester leapt from sixth to fourth place in the closing minutes, made the case for the playoffs.

At the same time Gloucester's unhappy fate, for the third time in six seasons, as table toppers ultimately left emptyhanded, compelled not only sympathy but the thought that it is about time some tangible recognition was accorded the team who won most points over a 22-match home and away programme spread over nine months.

Elsewhere Bath in particular belied suggestions that the Premiership is dourly attritional - now all they had to do is prove that they can do as well in a non-World Cup year - while Saracens and London Irish's Heineken performances underlined the competition's sheer depth.

In the bottom half Leeds' comparative weakness gave strugglers a season off from serious relegation worry that is unlikely to be repeated next season when Northampton, refreshed from their League One sabbatical and with the prolific Chris Ashton an intriguing addition to the Premiership's fliers, take their place.

One suspects too that Worcester, with the Ruddock effect taking effect after a worryingly slow start and a clutch of English youngsters making an impact, will be in the Heineken chase rather than the relegation mix come next year.

Not quite enough to have one yet wishing away the summer and the roll on to resumption on September 6th - as a fatigued colleague in the Twickenham press room reminded me it has been 10 months non-stop since England's pre-World Cup massacre of Wales, something that seems a lot longer ago in many senses, and a stop is essential to refresh over-stimulated appetites.

But come August, one suspects, and the opening day double-header billed in Saturday's programme will - not least because it features this magnificent Wasps team - start to exert its pull.