Glasgow Warriors' URC title defence buried in Scottish graveyard as relentless Leinster march into final

Glasgow Warriors have experienced their own particular horror stories at the stadium and added a fresh chapter on Saturday as their reign as kings of the United Rugby Championship came to an end.

Leinster pummelled them into submission, winning this semi-final 37-19, and they will now host the final next weekend at Croke Park.

Glasgow were comprehensively beaten and a couple of late converted scores from Jamie Dobie and Sione Tuipulotu made the scoreline less grizzly than it could have been. Leinster won the game in the first half, punishing every small error made by the visitors and playing with a relentlessness that was hard to live with. Their kicking game was excellent and in James Lowe they had a player who dominated the aerial battle.

They seemed able to pick off their opponents at will, making a mockery of claims that they are a team on the slide. They scored six tries in total, four of them in the first half, and the margin of victory would have been far greater had stand-off Sam Prendergast been more accurate off the tee.

Dan Sheehan and Jamie Osborne, with two tries apiece, did the bulk of the damage and there were also scores from Thomas Clarkson and replacement Ciaran Frawley as the boys in blue swept Glasgow away in the Dublin rain. George Horne scored a well-worked try after five minutes to keep the Warriors in touch but things went awry soon after.

This was the third time Leinster had beaten Glasgow at the Aviva this season and the aggregate score stands at 102-24. It wasn’t as bad as the 52-0 game in the Champions Cup in April but there were times you feared it might be. The Warriors came with hopes that their creative trio of Tuipulotu, Tom Jordan and Adam Hastings could ask questions of Leinster but the hosts were physically outstanding and snuffed out most of the threat.

It was a final bow in a Glasgow jersey for Henco Venter, Jordan and Jack Mann but they couldn’t go out on a high.

Worst possible start

It started badly for the champions and got progressively worse. Venter took the Leinster kick-off but was quickly isolated and conceded a penalty. There were only 18 seconds on the clock and the first try quickly followed. Leinster built the phases, hammering away at the Glasgow defence until the outstanding Jamison Gibson-Park flipped it out to Sheehan to score the first of his two first-half tries. The acrid smell of the pre-match pyro was still in the air as Prendergast slotted the conversion.

The game would run away from the visitors in the final 15 minutes of the half but their initial response was impressive and they scored a fine try through Horne. Tuipulotu’s sharp flat pass found Josh McKay and he played in Kyle Rowe haring down the left. The winger’s chip inside was perfectly judged for Horne to run on to and no-one was catching him. The scrum-half was off target with the conversion.

Unsurprisingly, it was a full-blooded affair and things spilled over at times. When Scott Penny had a ‘try’ disallowed for crossing by James Lowe, the Leinster winger took out his frustration on Scott Cummings, shoving him to the ground and sparking an all-in melee. A few minutes later, referee Andrea Piardi felt compelled to speak to both captains after another flashpoint.

Amid the argy-bargy, Prendergast was pushing and probing with his kicking game. He also landed a penalty to push the hosts 10-5 ahead at the midway point of the half and things unravelled for the visitors thereafter.

Jordan couldn’t hold on to a no-look pass from Tuipulotu and Leinster capitalised. Osborne thought he’d scored but Gibson-Park’s pass to the centre had been forward and the score was chalked off. Osborne was not to be denied, though. Two minutes later he took receipt off Lowe’s one-handed offload and hared down the left wing to score - and there was nothing wrong with this one.

Relentless Leinster

That made it 15-5 and Leinster would add two more tries before the half was out. They both originated at the lineout and relied on brawn. Clarkson was just far too strong as he barged his way past Fin Richardson, Horne and Euan Ferrie. And then Sheehan was at the back of a lineout maul to score his second of the afternoon. The only saving grace for Glasgow was that Prendergast was off target with both pots at goal and Leinster went in at the turn 25-5 ahead.

Jordie Barrett came close to adding a fifth Leinster try in the early stages of the second half but the home fans in the sparsely populated Aviva didn’t have long to wait. They hammered away at the Glasgow defence before the imperious Gibson-Park picked out Osborne who scored his second. Prendergast, who had struck the post with a straightforward penalty moments earlier, converted this one.

It was gruelling for Glasgow in the face of relentless opponents. The home side were fortified by their bench and one of the replacements, Frawley, plundered try number six. Lowe, a menace throughout, won an aerial duel with Kyle Steyn to put Leinster on the attack, Tommy O’Brien made headway down the right before finding Frawley who finished gratefully.

The game had long gone but Glasgow gave the small band of travelling supporters something to cheer with two tries in the final eight minutes. Dobie, on for Horne, fended off a tackle to go in under the posts and then Tuipulotu weaved his way through five blue jerseys for a fine solo score. Jordan converted both to give the final scoreline a bit more respectability at 37-19.