Leicester Tigers hoping to wreck the fairytale for Wasps star Dallaglio

Leicester will look to see Lawrence Dallaglio off the premises at Twickenham today with a haunting reminder that Grand Finals leave no room for sentimental farewells.

Galvanised for the most improbable of title defences by hectares of newsprint devoted to the opposing captain, the English champions promise to stick one phrase back down his throat: "Rugby doesn't do fairy-tales."

So close: Leicester captain Martin Corry is within touching distance of the Premiership trophy again

The way Leicester see it, this is payback time.

Three years ago, when the pre-match agenda had been dominated by Martin Johnson's final match, when Leicester went in as huge favourites after blitzing their opponents a fortnight earlier, Wasps stopped them inside the distance.

The impression that only one team mattered turned their grudge into an irresistible form of motivation.

Now that another all-time great is bowing out, the boot is on the other foot.

For Johnson, read Dallaglio, and Leicester will have made sure there has been plenty of it to read in the last 24 hours by pinning some of the material to the dressing-room wall in case anyone missed the point.

Recent history supports that fairytale finishes for the great and the good are few and far between.

Fate does have a habit of playing a dirty trick at the 11th hour, hence Will Carling's limping early exit from his last match as England captain, the damaged hamstring which held Jason Robinson back in the World Cup Final last October and, most recently, Richard Hill going desperately close to putting Saracens into the European Cup Final.

Then there was Neil Back, lucky not to have suffered the ultimate indignity of being sent off in his last match for smashing an unprovoked elbow into Joe Worsley's face during that same final against Wasps three years ago.

Small wonder, then, that Leicester have gone about their business as usual this week, happy to leave the stage free for Dallaglio and encourage the view that a Wasps win is written in the stars.

While he is far too savvy to pay Leicester anything less than total respect, the king Wasp clearly had no hang-ups about carrying the gleaming trophy down a Mayfair side street off Berkeley Square the other day at the behest of photographers.

The superstitious would have given it a wide berth. As far as Ben Kay is concerned, the more hype over Dallaglio, the better.

The England lock speaks from bitter personal experience as one of those who tripped over the Johnson hype the last time, one of just six re-appearing this afternoon from the cast on the wrong end of a pasting in what was Warren Gatland's farewell as Wasps' head coach.

The Leicester forward said: "We got drawn into something similar when Johnno and Backy retired in 2005. Hopefully, it will have a similar effect on Wasps. You never know. They are renowned for their blitz defence but, if we can beat it, there are a lot of holes behind."

Wasps will not have forgotten how Leicester scored four tries to win their EDF Energy Cup semi-final at the Millennium Stadium two months ago.

Andy Goode, a fly half whose game can fluctuate between majesty and despair, pulled the strings that day and re-appears at HQ knowing his team cannot be as grim as they were when last there, losing 23-6 to the Ospreys in April.

That the champions still have a title to defend is little short of miraculous.

With barely 20 minutes of the regular season remaining, they were down to seventh in the table and looking like they would miss out on the all-important top four.

Yet head coach Marcelo Loffreda could still win the Premiership and lose his job or, at best, have it redefined.

Tom Varndell's injurytime try against Harlequins followed by Goode's drop-goal at Gloucester a fortnight ago and Leicester, for all their faults, were in the final.

An unchanged team means no place for England hooker George Chuter and a start for Mefin Davies, a Welsh-speaking veteran in his 36th year, making him as old as Dallaglio.

Danny Cipriani will be there watching from his wheelchair close to the touchline, his cruel removal forcing Wasps to re-organise their back line with Riki Flutey at stand off, Mark van Gisbergen at full back and Josh Lewsey reverting to the wing for the injured Tom Voyce.

Despite Phil Vickery's return to the front row after more than six weeks out, Wasps have good cause to be wary, all the more so given that they return to their second home as favourites.