URC semi-final: Leinster v Glasgow Warriors, Aviva Stadium, kick-off 2.45pm

Everybody is out on their feet as Glasgow counter attack from their own line and Leinster finally get the ball off the field. A lot of players on their knees sucking air as Leinster look for their seventh try of the match.

Kelleher gains ground to the Glasgow 22 far too easily. A one handed off-load from RG keeps the ball alive but the final kick through is just to far ahead for Frawley to get hands on it. 37-5.

Prendergast gives way for Ross Byrne.

37-5

Leinster cut Glasgow to pieces in a sweeping move starting on the left with Lowe winning the ball in the air and making ground and ending with Frawley touching down in the right corner. The conversion missed and that is just three kicks from seven for Leinster. 37-3.

Frawley, Snyman, Kelleher and Slimani have come in for Leinster.

Another kick to the corner as referee Piardi warns Jordan for coming in from the side. Sheehan takes it up twice as Leinster pound the Glasgow defensive line. But it takes a wonderful skip pass from Gibson Park to Osborne who easily runs in for his second try. Prendergast converts for 32-5.

Prendergast misses a simple penalty as Leinster opt for points rather than an attacking lineout. That will not do is confidence from the tee much good. The ball hits the post and bounces back into play. A bad miss from the outhalf.

Good and bad from Prendergast who dummies to kick long but jinks the ball over heads for Tommy O’Brien to run on to. He then knocks on to kill the Leinster attack. 25-5.

The sun briefly comes out. Leinster are looking confident going forward. Another penalty goes to the corner. Baird rises and takes the ball and Sheehan bursts for the line from the maul but it stopped. Barrett gets over the line running from deep but the ball spills forward in contact and it’s a let off for Glasgow. 25-5

Glasgow make a raft of changes as Leinster win the kicking game. Glasgow are turning over a lot of ball in the air and making it easy for Leinster to turnover ball and gain territory. 25-5.

Hastings off McDowell in for Glasgow at 10

HALFTIME: Leinster 25 Glasgow 5

Another scrum penalty to Leinster, their third. Prendergast kicks to the corner for the last play of the half. Conan takes the ball and bodies pile in as the maul moved towards the Glasgow line. Who else but Sheehan at the back of the maul touches down for the fourth Leinster try and his second of the match. Prendergast misses again but the half closes with Leinster ahead 25-5.

The wet ball is causing some handling errors on both sides as a Leinster lineout squirts away from Baird with just five minutes to go to halftime.

A scrum penalty to Leinster and Prendergast kicks for an attacking lineout. Their tails are up. Sheehan finds Baird and delivers to Sheehan driving forward. Bodies pile in and prop Clarkson stretches over for Leinster’s third try. Prendergast pulls his conversion kick to the left. 20-5.

Great strength from Lowe who flicks a one handed pass to Osborne on the tramlines. Osborne takes off and this time the try sticks as Leinster extend their lead. Excellent hands from Lowe and execution from Osborne. 15-5.

A wonderful kick and chase from Tommy O’Brien takes Leinster into the Glasgow half. The ball spills looses and Gibson Park is there to pick up the pieces. He picks out Osborne racing up the middle. All too quick for the Scottish side’s defence. But referee Piardi looks at it again and it’s forward from Gibson Park and NO try. It stays 10-5. It is the second time Leinster have had a try ruled out.

Hastings knocks forward after Prendergast hoists a high ball. Leinster scrum with options left and right. Prendergast chips over for Jimmy O’Brien to chase with a penalty advantage. Prendergast kicks the points to open the gap. 10-5

Conan claims the Leinster lineout ball and they press into the 22. Big carry from Lowe and the Sheehan but the ball is jackled by Glasgow. Referee Piardi talks to both captains about chat between players. The rain pours down.

Really is end to end stuff as Leinster sweep up and get to the Glasgow line. But referee Piardi pings Lowe, who runs in front of the ball. A bit of a schermozzle follows but no cards are flashed.

Jack Conan off his feet and Glasgow kick their penalty for an attacking lineout. Joe McCarthy brilliantly slaps the ball back and after some panic and scramble, Leinster clear their lines.

Glasgow launch an attack from halfway lineout. But good defence this time with Porter holding up Tom Jordan and earning a scrum.

What a responses from Glasgow. Kyle Rowe takes off down the left wing and deftly kicks the ball in field, where George Horne wins the foot race and touches down for a try. The conversions is missed but Glasgow have shown they have come to play and Leinster defence again exposed. 7-5

Early penalty for Leinster and Prendergast kicks to touch. Baird takes the lineout ball. Leinster go through multiple phases and finally Gibson Park finds Dan Sheehan who muscles over the line from a few yards out. Prendergast converts in a bright start from the home side. 7-0.

The teams have just emerged from the tunnel and Glasgow instantly get into a huddle in the middle of the pitch. They are off with Sam Prendergast with the first kick of the ball.

“With and without the ball will be important today. We know Leinster will be up for this one. We know in play-offs pressure is on both sides,” Franco Smith Glasgow coach

52-0 to Leinster, when the teams met n April in the Champions Cup quarterfinal.

“There is a huge amount of pressure on them, on the organisation to deliver.” former Irish number 8 Jamie Heaslip.

“You gotta just try and recover put the game out of your system, get a new plan. They’ve (Leinster players) worked hard this week. Glasgow I’m sure will have their own plans. It’s a great test, isn’t it. Do or die we know.” – Leo Cullen

BTW Bulls and Sharks in the other URC semifinal takes place in South Africa AFTER Leinster’s games with Glasgow.

This week former hooker Bernard Jackman spoke about Leinster being afflicted by ‘performance anxiety’ while fearing the players’ confidence was shot following that Northampton loss. In around half ab hour we will find out.

URC semi-final: Leinster v Glasgow Warriors, Aviva Stadium, Saturday, 2.45pm – Live on RTÉ 2 and Premier Sports 1

Here is Gerry Thornley’s preview from this morning’s Irish Times. If a week is a long time in politics, then eight weeks can be an age in rugby. Only two months ago, Leinster eviscerated Glasgow 52-0 in the Champions Cup quarter-final, yet rivers of water have flowed under the bridge since then.

Full-strength, flying and on a mission for that fifth star, Leinster were close to unbeatable in blowing away a weakened Glasgow. But three weeks later a curiously undercooked Leinster were beaten 37-34 in the semi-final by Northampton. Despite three successive wins, including an altogether tougher 13-5 defeat of Glasgow, Leinster have looked mentally scarred by that crushing setback ever since.

By contrast, Glasgow arrive buoyed by last week’s handsome win over the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals. A place in the final is at stake, along with the chance to win the last piece of silverware on offer this season.

The Leinster team that dismantled Glasgow eight weeks ago is not available in its entirety. Hugo Keenan and Josh van der Flier are the latest to join Tadhg Furlong, Caelan Doris, Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose on the sidelines. Any team, even Leinster, would feel their loss.

Granted, this is partially offset by the return of Tommy O’Brien, while Scott Penny replaces Van der Flier and Dan Sheehan starts, with Rónan Kelleher reverting to the bench, in the personnel changes from last week’s lacklustre win over the Scarlets. Jimmy O’Brien, for his part, switches to fullback.

if the game gets sticky and it goes down to the last 15 minutes, you need to adapt and play the referee, play the opposition, the conditions

— Leo Cullen

True, Leinster still have eight of their dozen Lions, while the Warriors are missing two of their Lions quartet, Zander Fagerson and Huw Jones. But they should be very different to the team beaten 52-0. The talismanic and refreshed Sione Tuipulotu has hit the ground running in two return games, Josh McKay and Lions lock Scott Cummings have also returned from injury, as has influential South African number eight Henco Venter from suspension. It will be a starting 15 with eight changes from eight weeks ago.

A third clash in that time will contribute to a relatively low turnout through the doors at the Aviva Stadium. Ticket sales were approaching 15,000 as of Friday. In a sense, Leinster are being punished for earning five knock-out ties as well as TV-dictated kick-off times, but knock-out fatigue is not a new phenomenon and has compounded Aviva overload this season.

After all, only 9,346 turned up for the URC quarter-final on this weekend three long years ago when Leinster beat Glasgow 76-14. Just 11,565 attended the semi-final against the Bulls a week later.

That would prove to be the first of three semi-final defeats in succession which, coupled with three successive final losses in Europe and the recent Northampton defeat, should add to their motivation.

“There’s enough going on here to be motivated to get through this game at the weekend,” said Leinster coach Leo Cullen good-naturedly but, perhaps, a tad revealingly. “And, listen, if you get a performance lots of other things fall into place.

“But, if the game gets sticky and it goes down to the last 15 minutes, you need to adapt and play the referee, play the opposition, the conditions. We’re focused, we want to do well and that’s the focus this week.”

It’s as if Leinster are bracing themselves for a tight finish. Cullen joked aloud as to whether last week’s goalkicking shoot-out between Sharks and Munster in Durban was a factor in recalling Ross Byrne for his Aviva farewell and reverting to a 5-3 split.

One always senses that Cullen likes the insurance policy of Byrne on the bench to see out a close game. Certainly, last week’s restrictive territory-based tactics against the Scarlets were in keeping with the mantra coming out of Leinster’s HPC last Monday around “this is knock-out rugby”. With the forecast looking none too worse, it seems safe to presume that more of the same mentality and game plan will apply here.

“There’s a little bit around the conditions as well,” noted Cullen, citing “a fair old downpour” last weekend and the forecast.

“It’s knock-out games, particularly the way teams come and play against us. They’re not playing a huge amount of multi-phase rugby. We’ve seen teams come with strong kicking plans. You have to be able to adapt on the day.”

He also pointed to one of the two changes made by his counterpart Franco Smith to Glasgow’s 36-18 win over the Stormers, namely recalling Adam Hastings at outhalf in place of Tom Jordan, whose running game was so impressive last week.

“They’d a very different plan around kicking last time to when we played them the first time. Adam Hastings is in at number 10 instead of Tom Jordan. He’s more of a kicking 10, so that would suggest he might kick the ball more, but we’ll wait and see.”

Yet Glasgow are URC champions for a reason. They are a clever unit and like to come up with well-executed strike moves designed by Nigel Carolan trick plays. They are liable to play with more freedom. “As long as we don’t become predictable, that’s important,” said Smith last week.

Leinster look vulnerable too, but they have lost only two of 39 URC games at this venue. They also have a strong bench and, if they can rediscover some of their attacking accuracy and patience, they should edge a close encounter.

The teams: LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, Jack Conan (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Jack Boyle, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ross Byrne, Ciarán Frawley.

GLASGOW WARRIORS: Josh McKay; Kyle Steyn (capt), Sione Tuipulotu, Tom Jordan, Kyle Rowe; Adam Hastings, George Horne; Jamie Bhatti, Gregor Hiddleston, Fin Richardson; Alex Samuel, Scott Cummings; Euan Ferrie, Rory Darge, Henco Venter.

Replacements: Johnny Matthews, Rory Sutherland, Sam Talakai, Max Williamson, Jack Mann, Macenzzie Duncan, Stafford McDowall, Jamie Dobie.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).

Good afternoon and welcome to the Irish Times blog of Leinster’s URC semifinal against Glasgow in Aviva Stadium. A dull and overcast day in Dublin but dry, Leinster are without a number of frontline players including Garry Ringrose, Hugo Keenan, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong and Josh van der Flier. A place in next week’s final is up for Grabs.