{"id":14962,"date":"2025-04-12T23:08:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T23:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14962\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T23:08:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T23:08:19","slug":"glasgow-warriors-torn-to-shreds-by-leinster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14962\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow Warriors torn to shreds by Leinster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ItIt was a tough night for Glasgow Warriors against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson –
\nwww.craigwatson.co.uk <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n

DAVID BARNES<\/strong> @ Aviva Stadium<\/p>\n

THEY won\u2019t have admitted as much beforehand, but Glasgow Warriors travelled to Dublin in hope rather than expectation, so a loss to one of the true super-powers of the European game is not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination. Franco Smith\u2019s side will, however, have expected to make more of a contest of it. The visitors were battered from pillar to post by Leinster, who were out of sight by the 25th minute, and who will now host the winner of tomorrow [Saturday] evening\u2019s quarter-final clash between Northampton Saints and Castres when the semi-finals of this Champions Cup campaign come around at the start of May.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warriors, meanwhile, must lick their wounds and get back on the horse again when they visit Parma to take on Zebre in the URC next Saturday night. It won\u2019t be the same sort of occasion, with all the hype and colour which goes with a run through the knock-out stages in Europe, but that \u2013 unfortunately \u2013 is their current level, and it is hard at the moment to see them finding a route to closing the gap which was so ruthlessly exposed by Leinster here.<\/p>\n

Context is key. Warriors are not a bad team, as their URC triumph last season undeniably demonstrates, but this is a different level, and they were second best in every department. They will lament that they didn\u2019t play to their full potential, and rightly point to the raft of missing key men such as Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Zander Fagerson Scott Cummings<\/strong> and Jack Dempsey<\/strong>. But that\u2019s the game they are in. No concessions for hard luck stories.<\/p>\n

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There was a couple of half opportunities early on. Matt Fagerson<\/strong> sensed space on the left but his overhead pass just inside Leinster\u2019s half didn\u2019t go to hand, then Jamie Dobie<\/strong> stretched for an interception and would have had a run at the line had he managed to scoop the ball in. But they were really just harmless jabs delivered\u00a0 by the plucky underdogs as the hosts settled into the match and readied themselves to start moving forward with a relentless authority which the visitors simply had no answer for.<\/p>\n

Leinster thought they had taken the lead on nine minutes when Jordie Barrett<\/strong> propelled himself over from close range, but a replay on the big screen identified that the inside pass he had collected from Garry Ringrose<\/strong> was in fact a knock-on whilst being tackled by Dobie.<\/p>\n

With the Glasgow scrum already cracking under ferocious pressure, and Leinster mixing up their attacking game with a combination of powerful carrying in the tight channels allied to some slick offloading, it became increasingly apparent that the disallowed try was merely a temporary reprieve, and so it proved when Max Deegan<\/strong> squeezed over on the right to get the scoreboard rolling less than five minutes later.<\/p>\n

Sam Prendergast<\/strong> nailed the touchline conversion, and was just as deadly when kicking from hand, twice sending Warriors scuttling backwards with long touch-finders when the visitors had the temerity to sense that they might just have a chance to generate some momentum.<\/p>\n

Kyle Rowe<\/strong> sniffed an opportunity when he blocked Tommy O\u2019Brien<\/strong>\u2018s chip ahead and made good ground up the left touchline, but then his own kick into Leinster backfield was immaculately tidied up and sent 60-yard back downfield by Barrett.<\/p>\n

The incline of this steep mountain Warriors were facing cranked up several more notches when O\u2019Brien hunted down Rowe to turnover the ball five yards from Leinster\u2019s line and Prendergast picked out Ronan Kelleher<\/strong> with an inch-perfect cross-kick. Adam Hastings<\/strong> stuck out a hand to block the hooker\u2019s try-creating pass back inside, committing a deliberate knock-on, so the yellow-card and penalty try was a fair sanction.<\/p>\n

Prendergast then broke through midfield straight from the restart, kicked ahead, and the harassed Rowe dribbled the ball back over his own line rather than throw his body on it, eventually touching down himself to concede a scrum five from which Jamison Gibson-Park<\/strong> exploited the extra man by sending out a 20-yard miss pass straight to the unmarked James Lowe<\/strong> on the left wing, setting up an easy jog to the line.<\/p>\n

Try number four arrived with just half an hour gone, when more slick hands straight from scrum ball reached O\u2019Brien on the right touchline, and he coolly stepped inside last defender Kyle Steyn<\/strong> to mark his first European start with an well-taken if rather easy score.<\/p>\n

Hugo Keenan<\/strong> struck next, flopping on the ball in the in-goal area following the deftest of grubber\u2019s laced through Glasgow\u2019s bedraggled defence by the majestic Prendergast, and even when Warriors twice managed to battle their way to just inside Leinster\u2019s 22 during the final stages of the half, Barrett pinched the ball on the deck both times, as if he was robbing sweets from a baby.<\/p>\n

The really terrifying thing was that even though Leinster had already been forced to send Caelan Doris<\/strong> and Andrew Porter<\/strong> on as injury replacements, they still had the firepower of the likes Dan Sheehan, Rabah Slimani<\/strong> and Robbie Henshaw<\/strong> to come off their super-charged bench.<\/p>\n

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