Club leading the way with final star performers

AT around 4.30pm this afternoon – assuming that extra time is not required – either Gareth Steenson or Joe Launchbury will lift the Premiership trophy.

And, based on a perhaps slightly irritating recent precedent, BT Sport will award one of their teammates the Peter Deakin medal.

The award for the Premiership final’s man-of-the-match is of course only as old as the play-off system itself, which began in 2003.

And in that period of time four Wasps final appearances have delivered the same number of trophies... and predictably enough also four black-and-gold recipients of the newly created medal.

The first three of these came in successive years. In the inaugural final, Wales 2017 Six Nations attack coach Alex King, then wearing Wasps No.10 shirt, picked up the prize. He was followed in successive years by his skipper, and current Wasps director, Lawrence Bruno Nero Dallaglio. The black-and-golds’ 2008 win then provided a fourth recipient in the substantial form of former England second row Simon Shaw.

The award bears the name of a sports marketing expert who worked in rugby league with Bradford Bulls then with Saracens, where he was involved in the creation of the Fez Heads’ annual Wembley fixture. Deakin passed away following a brain tumour three months prior to Wasps’ first final triumph, at the age of 49.