Rennie left to rue a missed opportunity

GLASGOW WARRIORS head coach Dave Rennie blamed poor defending and inaccurate kicking for his side’s Pro14 home defeat to an under-strength Leinster side.

Rennie thought his team had the game under control until they lost two tries in four first-half minutes against the Irish outfit.

‘You give Leinster a sniff and they hurt you,’ said Rennie. ‘We started well and it was hard to believe we were down at half-time. We could have scored more tries before the break but did not take our opportunities.

‘They did a good job at slowing our ball, we gave away two soft tries and had too many defensive lapses. We also missed a couple of penalties.

‘Even at half-time we still felt we were in a good space. I felt we just needed to get our hands on the ball and try to dominate territory. We couldn’t do it but you have to credit their defence for putting a wall in front of us.

‘Peter Horne will be disappointed, especially with the penalty from in front, and I guess they nailed everything.

‘They were able to kick a couple more penalties in the second half to add pressure on us. We didn’t kick any distance when we tried to exit which was a problem for us.’

Rennie felt Huw Jones didn’t get a real chance to show what he could do after not being selected for Glasgow’s last two Heineken Champions Cup matches.

‘It was tough for Huw as he got minimal opportunities ball in hand,’ said the Warriors head coach. ‘He did a couple of good things early but it turned out to be one of those games for him. There was a lot of stuff round the edges and a tough night conditions-wise so he got minimal opportunities.’

Leinster coach Leo Cullen was delighted, especially as his side were without a string of Irish internationals such as Jonny Sexton who were rested.

‘We have a very competitive group and we picked guys who were motivated to come over here and do a job for the team.

‘It wasn’t a perfect performance but the boys dug in and took our chances when they came along.’