Warriors are outclassed as rampant Leinster run riot

Glasgow Warriors’ European woes continued as they suffered a crushing defeat by a rampant Leinster side.

Warriors went in at halftime 34-7 behind as the hosts crossed for five tries in the opening half which set them on their way to a bonus-point victory, securing a home quarter-final in the process.

Warriors have lost all five of their European outings this season. A home tie with Exeter Chiefs next weekend gives them their last chance of a fragment of consolation.

Leinster flanker Jordi Murphy bagged the game’s opening try after eight minutes. Johnny Sexton went up the line with a penalty and from the resulting lineout, the hosts drew first blood. Scrum-half Luke Mcgrath sniped off the back of a ruck and fed Murphy, who crashed through the cover to touch down unopposed. Sexton converted.

Two minutes later referee Marius Mitrea showed a yellow card to Murphy for a professional foul on Ali Price. Glasgow made the most of their numerical advantage as Matawalu crossed on 17 minutes. The Fijian threw a superb side-step to leave three Leinster players for dead, and with a conversion by Peter Horne, the visitors were level.

But Glasgow’s revival was short-lived as the home side capitalised from another attacking line-out three minutes later. Devin Toner caught the lineout and from the ensuing maul, Mcgrath fed Sexton

0 Glasgow Warriors’ Niko Matawalu scores a try despite the attentions of Leinster’s Jack Conan but it was a rare bright spot. and the stand-off threw a brilliant reverse pass to captain Isa Nacewa who glided through to the try line. Sexton converted to re-establish Leinster’s seven-point lead, then made no mistake with the penalty for a 17-7 lead after 24 minutes.

Eight minutes later, Sean Cronin barged over from a lineout maul and Sexton converted. Then Scott Fardy went over in the corner for his first European try for the province. Sexton failed to convert but he added to Glasgow’s woes four minutes later as he crossed for Leinster’s fifth try of the half to give them a 34-7 interval lead.

Nacewa scored his second try in the 57th minute which replacement Ross Byrne converted.

Glasgow scored a wellworked consolation try in the 62nd minute through Adam Ashe with Matawalu again proving thesparkofinvention. Horne failed with the conversion as Rennie’s side trailed 41-12 in the final quarter.

New Zealander James Lowe marked his European debut with a try in the 68th minute which Byrne converted. But the superb Matawalu punished some slack defending to dot down for his second try of the contest and replacement stand-off Brandon Thomson converted as Glasgow refused to lie down.

Fardy rounded off a superb performance by his fellow forwards to score his second try in the 78th minute and Byrne converted. The only consolation for Warriors is that there is just one game left in a hugely disappointing campaign. Coach Dave Rennie, left, may order his men to watch the match over and over in an effort to fashion the improvement necessary if they are to try to win the PRO14.

He said that poor defending in the opening half made this clash almost impossible to win, but he feels they can turn it around. “I might just put this on a reel and force the boys to watch it a lot!” he said. “We need to be at our best come May. There are some really good sides in the Pro14 as we’ve seen. We’re going to take some learnings from this but we’ll have to be a hell of a lot better next time we meet them.”

He said that they would make the most of their remaining pool game against English champions Exeter Chiefs next weekend.

“I’m glad we have that game. We’re disappointed with how we played today. The plus is that we get a chance next week to put some things right.

“It was a pretty lifeless first 40. Our defence has been a real strength of ours and we just lacked the connections and clarity and we got opened up softly a couple of times.

“An exciting team like Leinster, you can’t afford to give them that sort of opportunity.

“I’m much happier with the attitude and the spirit shown in the second half. I just felt that in the first half we just hadn’t played any footie. We had just kicked the ball back to them and gave them opportunities to attack us.”