Glasgow fall at final hurdle in Dublin as Leinster put paid to dream of Rabo glory
Warriors captain Kellock defiant in defeat after final anguish
GLASGOW captain Al Kellock has vowed his team will be stronger next year as a direct consequence of having been through the heartache of yesterday’s Pro12 final defeat to Leinster.
‘Gregor (Townsend) spoke to us afterwards about how proud he was of the effort that has gone in,’ he said. ‘We spoke in the changing room about how we use this final and the semi-final to push forward. It’s so difficult at the moment — it hurts to lose a final.’
‘Credit to Leinster. We made too many mistakes and they were clinical. There were a few key points when we needed to get the break and I believe we pushed them hard.
Although the score looks comfortable, if we had got the right breaks at the right time we could have gone on to win but, on the day, the better team won. It’s hard to take because we went out to play the way we have been playing and we didn’t execute the plan — but you’ve got to be proud of the effort to get us here.’
‘I felt we made more mistakes latterly, and I’m not talking about the last 10 minutes when we were chasing it, but immediately after half-time. That was the time to grab hold of the game and we didn’t manage to do that.’
Kellock refused to blame Niko Matawalu for losing possession as he dived for the line midway through the second half. Leinster counter-attacked from that and eventually scored a penalty which put the Irish team in the driving seat for the rest of the match.
‘It looks massive in the context of the game but there were probably four or five other moments as well,’ he said.
‘The fans have been unbelievable in the build-up, coming on to the stadium, in the amount of messages we’ve had.
‘We desperately wanted to win that for everybody involved but because we’ve lost it, we can’t let the good work that has gone into building this club slip. And if we lose a final to win one next year, then we’ll take that.’
Coach Townsend added that a lack of composure was crucial to his team’s defeat.
‘I think we rushed things at times. We knew we had to play our best game of the season to win and we didn’t do that today,’ he said.
‘I thought we had moments of ascendancy in the first half — there was a slight wind advantage, we played really well, we were breaking tackles — but on two occasions we got into their 22 we didn’t execute.
‘And obviously the try-scoring opportunity in the second half which led to a big breakaway by Leinster and, if that had gone our way, it could have been a different game.’
‘There are a lot of lessons we’ve taken from losing the semi-final last year which has made us a better team. We’ve now lost the final and I think we have to handle the occasion better.
‘It was a wonderful occasion, the noise that the supporters made was fantastic, the game would have been great for the neutral, but there was times when we had to have more control and more patience in our play.’
THEY met their date with destiny head on — and nobody can ever doubt the bravery of this Glasgow Warriors team — but, in the end, Leinster’s greater experience and ability was the difference.
Gregor Townsend’s men had their fair share of the ball but they found it hard to generate forward momentum and, when they got deep into opposition territory, they invariably coughed up possession.
Leinster, meanwhile, were deadly every time they got a sniff.
Having said that, the final score was not a fair reflection of how tight this pulsating encounter was until the final six minutes — when two Leinster tries finally put daylight between the two sides.
The Irish had hoped for a triumphant end to legend Brian O’Driscoll’s magnificent 15-year career — but that didn’t quite go according to plan.
They got the result they were after but the great man lasted only eight minutes before retiring from the match with a calf injury.
Warriors brought more than 3,000 supporters to Dublin — including the elusive Vern Cotter, who finally started his new career as Scotland coach this morning when the national squad flew out to Houston, Texas, to start their four-match summer tour.
Although the visiting support were outnumbered five to one, they did a marvellous job of making their presence felt, with their corner by far the noisiest part of the ground.
And they were given an early reason to cheer when Finn Russell charged down a Jimmy Gopperth clearance, although the bounce of the ball didn’t go his way.
The Warriors stand-off had to make do instead with a penalty a few moments later.
Rob Kearney failed to deal with a high ball and Mike Ross picked up from an offside position. Russell drilled the three points home.
It was no surprise that Leinster came roaring back but when Zane Kirchner knocked on, the Warriors were able to clear their lines.
Russell doubled his and his team’s account in the 11th minute by slotting a penalty in off the post from the left touchline after Mike McCarthy was pulled up for a high tackle on Tommy Seymour.
Again, though, Leinster came back at Glasgow in furious fashion and, after several punishing phases, the overlap was created for Kirchner to go over in the corner.
Gopperth nailed the conversion with pinpoint accuracy to give the home side the lead.
It was end-to-end stuff — thrilling to watch — and the rate of attrition amongst the players reflected how hard it was out on the pitch on a gloriously sunny Dublin evening.
The visitors lost Dougie Hall, Chris Fusaro and Peter Horne before the break (although Horne was able to return to the fray for the second half). Indeed, at one point during the second half, it looked as if they would do well to finish the match with 15 semi-fit players on the park.
With both teams willing to throw caution to the wind in their quest for domination, there were plenty of handling errors in the face of some bone-crunching collisions.
Leone Nakarawa, who had joined the fray in place of Fusaro, launched a midfield rampage which set up the Warriors’ third penalty after Leinster illegally slowed down possession.
Russell’s successful kick put the visitors back into the lead, but only briefly, because Leinster grabbed their second try when Gopperth released Kirchner with a sublime inside pass. The impressive winger brushed off a Gordon Reid tackle before releasing Shane Jennings to score under the posts.
Russell narrowed the gap to two points on the stroke of half-time when he kicked another penalty.
The Warriors were still in it but it was a concern that they needed to work hard for every point they had got, while Leinster had grabbed their two scores with ease.
The hill the Scots needed to climb nearly became a mountain at the start of the second half.
Cian Healy rammed the ball against the post, but referee Nigel Owens referred it to the Television Match Official, and it was ruled the prop had returned to his feet, despite being held in the tackle by Alex Dunbar.
Warriors then got another reprieve when Gopperth’s long-range penalty hit the post and went wide.
Townsend’s men needed to get a grip of the ball and retain possession, but it was a real struggle, with Russell miscuing clearance kicks twice in quick succession.
However, Warriors then came within a whisker of scoring the try which might have turned the game.
Josh Strauss and Jonny Gray made the hard yards, but Niko Matawalu lost possession when he tried to wriggle over the line.
Leinster immediately launched a counter attack through Gopperth, Sean Cronin and Kirchner. Matawalu somehow made it back to make a desperate cover tackle, but Leinster kept it going and, when Ian Madigan slipped a grubber through the middle, he left Seymour with no choice but to concede a scrum five when he kicked over the dead-ball line.
When the scrum went down, Owens gave Leinster the penalty, which Gopperth knocked over to extend his team’s lead to five points.
That was soon extended to eight when Nakarawa was penalised for coming round the side of a ruck to clobber Eoin Reddan and Gopperth kicked successfully.
Leinster then made Warriors pay for losing possession when Gordon D’Arcy sent Kirchner over for the try which finally took the game out of reach. Minutes later, the Leinster men swapped roles when Kirchner sent D’Arcy over for a fourth try.