Matawalu’s magical run shows way for Glasgow

GLASGOW Warriors coach Dave Rennie was thrilled to see his side exact revenge on Leinster for their recent Champions Cup defeat as his brilliant Fijian Niko Matawalu tore Leo Cullen’s side apart.

Matawalu laid on a try of the season contender for Nick Grigg following a 95 metre run from his own try-line and was also at the heart of Warriors’ stunning first half performance.

Tries from Jamison Gibson-Park and Rory O’Loughlin had Leinster in good shape early on, but despite playing against 14 men for 20 minutes in the second-half, Adam Byrne’s try was all Leinster could claim.

“We wanted to go through the middle of them and our big men did a job there and we went wide when it was on,” said Rennie.

“The first-half was pretty solid and the second-half we played without the ball a lot and played with 14 men for half of that. There was a lot of character shown to keep them to only one try.”

A mazy run from Jordan Larmour saw Gibson-Park score the first try in the fifth minute for Leinster, but two minutes later Matawalu sent George Horne over. His brother Peter added the first of four conversions.

A smart break from Conor O’Brien set up his centre partner O’Loughlin for try number two after 11 minutes, but after 15 minutes Matawalu’s sharp thinking inside his own 22 meant Grigg dived over to level at 14-14.

But the game turned after Jordi Murphy picked up a silly yellow card when he failed to retreat ten metres, and George Horne ran in his second try four minutes later, before Matawalu ran from a yard outside his own line, beat five Leinster defenders but handed the try to Grigg on a plate for a 28-14 lead.

Leinster came to the fore on the resumption and Adam Byrne scored in the corner in the 47th minute.

Leinster could have made further inroads but a couple of lineout malfunctions cost them. Yellow cards for Scott Cummings and Alex Dunbar – both for accumulated infringements – gave Leinster hope, but Glasgow closed out the late action impressively.