Andrew Porter and Jamie Osborne of Leinster smother Kyle Rowe of Glasgow Warriors during the URC semi-final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Image: © Craig Watson –
www.craigwatson.co.uk 
DAVID BARNES @ Aviva Stadium
THE curtain came down on Glasgow Warriors’ season in fairly predictable fashion at the Aviva Stadium, with ruthless Leinster proving that whatever challenges they face in being able to win the big games that really matter against top tier opposition from England and France, they have got the game-plan and personnel to dominate this particular fixture.
It wasn’t nearly as excruciating as that 52-0 mauling Warriors suffered against the same opposition at the same venue in the EPCR Champions Cup eight weeks ago, but from the third minute onwards there was only one winner. Glasgow are a real handful if they get the chance to play to their strengths, but Leinster squeezed them at source, tortured them with accurate contestable kicks, and were so aggressive and relentless throughout that the visitors couldn’t hold onto the ball long enough to get any sort of flow into their game.
Two late tries softened the final scoreline, and proved that Franco Smith‘s side have resilience, but this was another chastening experience in Dublin (especially when you consider that Leinster were missing several key players while Warriors had a few of the big dogs who missed that Champions Cup game back).
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It didn’t start well for Glasgow, with Henco Venter penalised for holding on straight from the kick-off, Leinster kicking to the corner, and Dan Sheehan blasting over several punishing phases later. There was just three minutes on the clock as Sam Prendergast clipped over the extras.
But Warriors bounced back in quick-order on this occasion. Sione Tuipulotu and Josh McKay combined to put Kyle Rowe into space on the left, and a clever diagonal kick back in field bounced perfectly for George Horne, running one of his classic inside support lines, to complete a well constructed score – although the scrum-half will have been frustrated that he could not add the fairly easy conversion leaving his side trailing by two points with five minutes played.
That, however, was as good as it got for Warriors in the first half. As Leinster cranked up the pressure, Scott Penny had a try chalked off due to a James Lowe obstruction, before Prendergast stretched his team’s lead to five points on 21 minutes with a penalty from directly in front of the posts.
Leinster thought they had scored again when Jamie Osborne galloped under the posts after Tommy O’Brien and Jamison Gibson-Park had capitalised on a Tom Jordan knock-on, but the score was belatedly chalked off. With the conversion kicked, Glasgow were about to restart when referee Andrea Piardi and TMO Matteo Piperini decided to have a closer look at the final pass and ultimately ruled that it had gone forward.
Not a problem for Osborne, who shrugged off any sense of grievance to charge home again just a few minutes, this time wide on the left off a back-handed offload from Lowe and with no danger of a review. Then a third scrum penalty conceded in just over half an hour allowed Leinster to kick to the corner again, from which Thomas Clarkson scrambled over from close range for try number three.
When you are under the pump, you simply must get your basics right to have any chance of escape, but a knock-on from Horne from a line-out inside Glasgow’s 22 allowed Leinster to attack Warriors’ scrum again. Piardi opted to penalise an offside rather than collapsed set-piece, not that it really mattered because outcome was the same, with Prendergast kicking to the corner and Dan Sheehan finishing the half in the same vain as he started it, touching down for his second and his team’s fourth try of the match off the back of the line-out maul.
If there was any silver-lining, it was that Prendergast missed all three of his conversion attempts between 27th and 40th minute, and with two Leinster tries having been chalked off, the scoreboard did not look quite as ominous for Warriors as it could have – but there was still a long, long way back.
Alas, it was more of the same after the break, with Horne kicking possession out on the full and high balls being spilled all over the place by Warriors, meaning it was only a matter of time before Leinster extended their lead.
Kyle Rowe did well, but may have been slightly high, when he managed to stop Jordie Barrett getting the ball down over the line, then Prendergast hit the post with a penalty, before the ever-mounting pressure was eventually rewarded, with Gibson-Park’s long flat pass from the base of a ruck on the Warriors line sending Osborne over, and Prendergast converted this time.
Leinster scored again four minutes later. The move was initiated by Lowe collecting a high ball and making ground on the left, before a joyful passage of inter-passing swept right across the park and was ultimately finished by fresh-off-the-bench Ciaran Frawley.
It could have got really ugly for Warriors at that point, but they rode the storm, and even picked up couple of late consolation scores. The first came after some gutsy running by Josh McKay, Jordan and Scott Cummings finally got the visitors inside their opponents’ 22, allowing Jamie Dobie to scoot home off a quick recycle by Max Williamson. The second was scored by Tuipulotu, who danced past five defenders to remind Andy Farrell, the Lions head coach in attendance, of his Test-match credentials ahead of this summer’s tour to Australia.
Teams –
Leinster: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, J Osborne, J Barrett (C Frawley 55), J Lowe; S Prendergast (R Byrne 61), J Gibson-Park (L McGrath, 69); A Porter (J Boyle 59), D Sheehan (R Kelleher 54), T Clarkson (R Slimani 54), J McCarthy, J Ryan (RG Snyman 54), R Baird, S Penny, J Conan (M Deegan, 63)
Glasgow Warriors: J McKay; K Steyn, S Tuipulotu, T Jordan, K Rowe; A Hastings (S McDowall 41), G Horne (J Dobie, 51); J Bhatti (R Sutherland 45), G Hiddleston (J Matthews 45), F Richardson (S Talakai 45), A Samuel (M Williamson 44), S Cummings, E Ferrie (J Mann, 72), R Darge, H Venter (M Duncan 59).
Referee: A Piardi
Scorers –
Leinster: Tries: Sheehan 2, Osborne 2, Clarkson, Frawley; Con: Prendergast 2; Pen: Prendergast
Glasgow Warriors: Try: Horne, Dobie, Tuipulotu 2; Con: Jordan 2.
Scoring sequence (Leinster first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-5; 10-5; 15-5; 20-5; 25-5 (h-t) 30-5; 32-5; 37-5; 37-10; 37-12; 37-17; 37-19.
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