Drowning in the Pool of Death
Warriors’ mission is now almost impossible after Leinster turn on the style
GLASGOW’S terrific start to the season under new management came to a shuddering halt with the step up to European level as defeat to Leinster virtually extinguished hopes of reaching the Champions Cup quarter-finals for a second year in a row.
It is not impossible for the Warriors to still qualify from this ‘Pool of Death’, having lost twice last year and still clinched a first qualification, but the key then was securing bonus points from losses. After going down 24-15 at Exeter and suffering a heavier defeat at home yesterday, Glasgow head into back-to-back games in December with Montpellier, Europe’s new galacticos, with zero points.
A Stuart Hogg try energised a near-full Scotstoun in an engrossing first half but Leinster’s superior forward muscle, flexed in the scrum and rucks, and by the carrying — particularly of prop Tadhg Furlong and hooker Sean Cronin — brought two scores and a 17-10 half-time lead.
And, despite a slick Tommy Seymour score that had the stadium briefly rocking, the experienced Johnny Sexton kept the Warriors out of reach in the second with a try and two penalties. Leinster clinched a bonus point with a late fourth try from centre Noel Reid.
The rain fell steadily and the wind blew hard into the Glasgow backs from kick-off, and that contributed to a plethora of knock-ons and kicks flying wide and long. Sexton exploited an early error to nudge the visitors into a 3-0 lead just two minutes in, but when Glasgow did hold onto ball and find Hogg, there was real optimism.
From Hogg’s first attack from deep he left three Leinster backs looking like the Keystone Cops, the full-back marking his long-awaited return from a summer shoulder operation by goose-stepping past Robbie Henshaw and into space to take Glasgow from their own 22 to the Leinster 22. The attack brought a penalty which Russell kicked to level the score after 14 minutes.
Immediately afterwards, Hogg was punching the air, having scored the game’s opening try. It came from a slick backs move where Russell looped, then grubbered through, Seymour hacked forward and the full-back just got to the ball to touch down before it went dead.
Leonardo Sarto skilfully kept a Sexton penalty to touch infield only for Hogg’s wind-assisted clearance to disappear all the way downfield and dead. From that lineout, and another from a penalty, Leinster wore down the Warriors defence and prop Cian Healy finally crashed over the line.
Glasgow’s inspirational skipper Ryan Wilson had been off having eight stitches put in a leg cut, and his return proved temporary as within minutes the flanker and lock Tim Swinson clashed heads and both were forced off. Swinson went for assessment, and returned after nearly ten minutes, but a concussed Wilson was frustrated to be informed that his game was over.
Glasgow put in a power of work to still dominate possession and territory, but tough Leinster defending and the wet conditions combined to deny them scoring chances. Hogg was just wide with a long-range penalty, but when Peter Horne knocked on at halfway and the Glasgow scrum was demolished by a Lions-fuelled Leinster front row, the visitors seized their chance in the last seconds of the half. Sexton kicked a penalty to touch and the Leinster pack rumbled and rumbled from 20 metres until Healy again found a way over. Sexton converted for a 17-10 interval lead.
Glasgow flew out of the traps on the restart, but when their discipline faltered in the final phases, the Irish outfit showed a greater composure in attack and Sexton worked a neat loop with Fardy that sucked in three home defenders to let the stand-off run in for an easy score beside the posts.
His conversion opened up an ominous-looking 14-point gap for the hosts, but Glasgow kept the home fires burning with a superb attacking response in which George Turner, Horne, Seymour and Adam Ashe were prominent in eating up metres before a vital injection of intensity in the Leinster 22 this time left the defence stranded and Seymour racing into the right-hand corner.
Russell failed to convert this time, but Glasgow strived to keep the tempo high and a sublime disguised pass from the fly-half released Sam Johnson on a 40-metre run to the Leinster 22. That chance was exploded by another knock-on, forced by a great Sexton tackle, and
a Hogg knock-on did for another promising attack moments later.
Leinster sent on their latest wave of international forwards: Jack McGrath, James Tracy, Dan Leavy and James Ryan, and they stiffened the visitors’ defensive effort.
After a Glasgow lineout drive was easily repelled, Russell slotted a penalty to get back within a converted score, but Horne gifted the points back when he tackled Sexton off the ball at the other end for a soft penalty.
The drifting Warriors hopes were obliterated in the last ten minutes when Leinster’s Reid cut a fine line through a tiring and flat-footed Warriors defence for the bonuspoint try. Glasgow’s team had been decimated moments earlier when Horne and Callum Gibbins clashed heads, and the sight of the former being forced off for an assessment and another bloodied flanker being helped, staggering, from the field provided the final, fitting metaphor for a game in which Glasgow’s European hopes were effectively ended.