Dallaglio, who fractured his right ankle on the British & Irish Lions tour four months ago, took his first step to proving himself worthy of a place in Andy Robinson's England squad by completing the full 80 minutes at the Causeway Stadium.

Wasps secured a bonus point victory with tries from Ben Gotting, Paul Sackey, Josh Lewsey and James Brooks to leave them in pole position for a place in the semi-finals.

But Dallaglio insists there is still plenty of hard work ahead before he can challenge for an England place on merit.

"I'd like to play for England, I can't make that any clearer. If your national coach rings up and says 'would you like to play for England?' it is a pretty straightforward answer. It's like being asked to go to war," he said.

"What I am saying is that I have got to be worthy of the place. The two years of picking people on reputation are over now, thank goodness, and if England are to get back to winning ways they need to pick on form.

"It is about picking the best players and on the evidence of one performance I am a long way off being the best player in the country.

"England have plenty on their plate at the moment and don't even need to consider myself or Jonny Wilkinson.

"I wasn't expecting any miracles here - I have come into the season seven or eight games in."

Dallaglio had always intended on playing for as long as possible this evening and after Wasps stormed into a 20-0 half-time lead nothing was going to drag him off the field.

"I was certainly going to go 80 minutes after that first half," said Dallaglio.

"There are lots of tough games coming up and you have got to start playing some time. We have Sale next week, Toulouse, Edinburgh are top of the Celtic League. They are all tough games."