Seymour to the four GUINNESS PRO12
Glasgow Try he ro ensures victory for Townsend’s men in first outing on new pitch, reports Stuart Bathgate
attempt at goal, awarded after Stuart Hogg had been obstructed while chasing his own high kick. That was as close as either team came to scoring in an opening 10-minute spell dominated by solid defence, but the Warriors made the breakthrough with a clever move.
Pyrgos did the initial damage with a grubber kick, then several phases later Sam Johnson threw an excellent miss pass for Seymour to run in the opening try from just inside the 22. The scrum-half was off target with the conversion attempt from the left touchline.
Having shown their attacking prowess, Glasgow had to switch to defensive duties and shunted a Leinster maul into touch right on the left corner flag. Minutes later they could not prevent RobKearney from scoring and Joey Carbery’s conversion put the visitors in front. But their lead did not last, as the Warriors pushed ever closer to the Leinster line until Swinson forced his way over between the posts, with some timely assistance from Rob Harley. Pyrgos was on target this time to make it 12-7.
Five minutes before the break Warriors winger Leonardo Sarto was yellow-carded for an offence close to his own line and Leinster’s openside Josh van der Flier soon broke through the middle close to a ruck to score his team’s second try. Carbery restored Leinster’s lead from in front of the posts, then in the last play of the half the Irishmen really made the extra man count when Zane Kirchner collected a Carbery diagonal to score in the right corner.
Carbery failed to convert, but he stretched the lead with a penalty three minutes after the restart.
Glasgow needed the next score to get back into contention, and they got the full seven points when Seymour picked off a loose Carbery pass to run in unopposed from 30 metres and Pyrgos converted.
Minutes later, Leinster’s attempt to attack from deep ended in a fumble, and Seymour gathered on the deck just inside the visitors’ half. He had more ground to make and more defenders in the way than for his second score, but he squeezed clear of two forwards then outstripped three more pursuers in his race for the line. Pyrgos converted again, but then a Carbery penalty made it a one-point game at 26-25.
With barely five minutes to go, Seymour scored his fourth, cutting in on a reverse angle to scythethroughthedefence. Another successful conversion from Pyrgos put the Warriors eight points clear, and Leinster were unable to get the score that would have sent them home with a losing bonus point.