LEICESTER 29, WASPS 11.

THIS was never going to an afternoon of redemption, but Wasps can leave Welford Road with heads unbowed after avoiding embarrassment against Leicester Tigers.

In fact, were in not for an incredulous display from Tigers fly-half Billy Twelvetrees, who scored all his sides' points, they might have even managed to sneak away with a bonus point.

That would probably have been too much to ask this year, but although they leave with nothing this was nowhere near as bad as it might have been for the black and golds, who led for 30 minutes and hung in there for 30 more before finally letting the game run away from them in the latter stages.

By then though, they had probably done enough to satisfy their fans and provide their players with a welcome morale-boost as they head into Europe again.

Actually, Wasps fans can't have asked for much more in the first half.

Their team went to the break 16-11 down, but after last week's debacle that represented a colossal improvement and with a bit of luck it might have been even closer.

It started going Wasps' way right from the start, when Billy Twelvetrees' kick off went straight out of play. The Wasps pack straightened their backs to blunt Tigers in the resulting scrum, and when a penalty came their way with just two minutes gone - after Sam Jones tapped and went and teammates piled into the breakdown after him to protect possession - Elliot Daly stepped up to knock it over from 47m.

With just 78 minutes left, Wasps were in dreamland and after avoiding another whitewash in double-quick time they didn't mess about before bringing their try drought to a close as well.

Just 15 minutes were on the clock when stand-in fly half Ryan Davies received the ball in an attacking position, 40m out and just left of centre.

The momentum appeared to hit a brick wall when he threw a wild pass behind his midfield, but Daly reacted first to scoop up the loose ball before Tom Varndell and Hugo Southwell combined to send Nic Berry over in the corner.

Davies' conversion attempt drifted across the face of the posts, but after half an hour Wasps were nearly in again when possession squirted away from Leicester's back three and Marco Wentzel pounced to stretch his long legs from 20m out.

He had Richard Haughton for support, but between them they couldn't get the ball wide to Daly and the threat receded.

Tellingly though, Wasps were looking clinical playing ad hoc rugby, feeding off scraps and errors rather than being asked to make the play themselves.

The counter-punch allied to a grim defence was the club's signature in the days of Shaun Edwards, and this paler version was working pretty well.

Of course, even in the Edwards era Wasps generally lost up here and Tigers were deservedly in front at half time after running the game if not ruling it for much of the first period.

Twelvetrees was their only points-scorer though, accumulating 11 points with the boot and also scoring the hosts' only try after Geordan Murphy had rolled back the years with a telling break with 34 minutes played.

And the second half as no less awkward for Leicester.

Two more Twelvetrees penalties eased them into a 22-11 lead, but it wasn't until the last ten minutes that they were finally able to strut.

By then Dai Young's injury curse had struck down wingers Richard Haughton and Tom Varndell while a sin-binning for Tim Payne had sapped the last reserves of energy out of the legs.

Twelvetrees, who else, took advantage to give an untidy win a tidy look on the scoreboard.