Smith brands his men as their own worst enemies
Glasgow coach Franco Smith last night insisted his team had been their own worst enemies as they lost their 10th consecutive away game.
This result may only have been half as bad as the last time the Warriors played at the RDS in Dublin – yesterday they conceded six tries, while back in June they let in 12 in the 76-14 defeat that saw the end of Danny Wilson’s time in charge of the team.
But that was no consolation for Smith, who accepted his team have a psychological problem when it comes to playing away from Scotstoun – where they have won all three of their league games so far this season.
“I think we played literally against ourselves,” he said. “I said to the guys that we didn’t get beaten – we lost.
“We gave away six consecutive penalties in the first half which gave them field position, and they converted four of those. That was really disappointing.
“Then later in the first half we breached their defence regularly. We got close to their line but there was always that little bit of an error in the offload that stopped us getting the try that we needed.
“Unfortunately there are some old habits and beliefs that get stuck. But we’ve got a lot of plans that we’re making.
“It’s going to be one game to turn it round – and hopefully we can get it next week away to Zebre.
“I don’t want to call it a psychological plan, because I think it’s sometimes misinterpreted by the public.
“We want to get out there and develop skill sets – and also mental skill sets to handle the pressure and help us play better away from home.”
Leinster were 21-0 up and firmly in control by the midpoint of the first half after a try from Dave Kearney and two from Rob Russell, all converted by Ross Byrne.
But the Warriors played far better in the middle part of the game, and got one try back five minutes into the second half when winger Sebastian Cancelliere finished off after a break by giant lock Alex Samuel.
However, that was as good as it got for the Warriors. Michael Milne got the bonus try for the hosts, Russell completed his hattrick, and John Mckee got their sixth two minutes from time.
Ross Byrne converted Milne’s try, then younger brother Harry took over, adding the extras to Mckee’s score after missing the Russell conversion.
Leinster had rested key forwards such as Tadhg Furlong and newly-crowned world player of the year Josh van der Flier, but they were still far too strong for Glasgow, whose coach is eager to build a squad at Scotstoun as deep as the Dublin side has.
“It’s tough playing against a team like Leinster who have a squad prepared for Europe and one for the URC,” Smith added.
“We’re heading that way – we want to develop our squad’s strength in depth.
“We’re definitely going to learn from the errors that we made.
“Four of their tries were turnovers when we had the ball – that’s something we can control.
“I’m really, really positive, and I feel with the character of the team we can use what we’ve experienced tonight in our favour next week away to Zebre.”