Champions Cup quarter-final: Leinster 52 Glasgow Warriors 0
For a second week in succession Leinster vaporised their opponents, eight tries this time, one again holding their opponents scoreless to march into the semi-finals of the Champions Cup. As a statement it was both emphatic and at times eloquent in the rugby served up.
For much of the pregame preamble the soundtrack was provided by a flock of seagulls – the birds not the 80s new wave band from Liverpool – that circled and then perched on guardrails in the empty upper tiers of the Aviva Stadium, the crowd of 22,400 understandably slow to take their seats on a lovely spring evening.
Things got lively quickly, though. Leinster demonstrated devil in their attacking detail, fiery and remorseless. Jordie Barrett played like an All Black, a vintage one: turnovers, carries, offloads, thumping tackles, a high-end, one-stop shop for all his team’s rugby needs. It was a performance of breathtaking quality.
That would have been tough enough to contain in its own right, but he was surrounded by accomplices and acolytes who also operated at an elevated level, and none more so than Sam Prendergast.
The 22-year-old outhalf played with vision and touch, bringing a variety and nuance to his passing and game management, albeit he would be the first to acknowledge the platform provided by his team-mates and particularly his pack.
Leo Cullen made six changes from the Harlequins win and each one added value. Tommy O’Brien, a try scorer and Glasgow nemesis with his power, footwork and sallies into midfield, Barrett and Max Deegan, who chipped in with a brace of tries, and Tadhg Furlong, robust in his work, so too Rónan Kelleher and Cian Healy in his 30-minute cameo.
RG Snyman was pretty much hands-free all night, and on the same wavelength as his team-mates, while the indefatigable Josh van der Flier gave another masterclass.
Leinster were a little untidy initially but still the home side served notice twice in the first six minutes by getting the ball to space on the edges. The first decision of note came in the eighth minute, when Prendergast punted a kickable penalty to touch in the corner.
It looked like being vindicated when Barrett dived over under the posts, but Garry Ringrose was adjudged to have knocked the ball on first before it rebounded into his centre partner’s hands an outcome revealed following the intervention of TMO Andrew Jackson.
It was a short-lived respite. O’Brien made the initial surge through midfield, Hugo Keenan took play to one touchline and when Leinster rewound play towards the other extremity, it was the sublime Barrett the provided the pivotal input, his strength in the tackle and offload enabled O’Brien to provide Deegan with the room to dive over in the corner.
Prendergast kicked a brilliant touchline conversion, the only downbeat note, an injury that forced Jack Conan to retire, replaced by Caelan Doris. Barrett demonstrated the other side of his game to chase back, win a race against Kyle Rowe, pirouette and hand off the Glasgow fullback and then thump the ball 45-metres down the pitch.
It drew a thunderous ovation from the stands. Alex Samuel perpetrated a filling-loosening hit on Doris, but the Leinster man survived a little better than his opponent who staggered in regaining his feet, if not his equilibrium initially. The visitors were thereafter subjugated with ruthless efficiency as Leinster raised the intensity first, before cutting Glasgow to shreds.
A penalty try on 22 minutes cost the Scottish side seven points and their outhalf Adam Hastings, who received a yellow card. He batted down Rónan Kelleher’s try-scoring pass following Prendergast’s pinpoint cross-kick. By the time Hastings returned Leinster led 26-0, their third try a homily to spatial awareness.
The initial thrust was made by Prendergast, a lovely break from the outskirts of his 22, that eventually culminated in a Leinster five-metre scrum down the other end of the pitch. Jamison Gibson-Park’s long pass cut out the middlemen in blue and went straight into the breadbasket of the grateful James Lowe who crossed unopposed.
By the half-hour, the home side had a fourth try, picture perfect in concept and execution. Prendergast looped around the midfield, Keenan held the drift and fired a long cut-out pass to O’Brien who had the savoir-faire to sidestep the last defender and dot down.
Prendergast kicked another touchline conversion before showing off a more subtle touch four minutes later, when he drew Glasgow defenders to him and then with a deft dab, slid the ball through for the onrushing Keenan to dot down. Prendergast’s conversion helped Leinster to a 33-0 interval lead.
Unfortunately for Glasgow the hits kept coming, Ringrose showing strength and shimmy to slalom through the visiting defence for a sixth try. Sheehan crossed for a seventh, Deegan added the eighth, his second, to complete a runaway victory.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 13 mins: Deegan try, Prendergast con, 7-0; 22: Penalty try, 14-0; 25: Lowe try, 19-0; 30: O’Brien try, Prendergast con, 26-0; 34: Keenan try, Prendergast con, 33-0. Half-time: 33-0. 46: Ringrose try, Prendergast con, 40-0; 57: Sheehan try, Prendergast con, 47-0; 75: Deegan try,
LEINSTER: H Keenan; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; C Healy, R Kelleher, T Furlong; J McCarthy, RG Snyman; M Deegan, J van der Flier, J Conan (capt).
Replacements: C Doris for Conan (14 mins); A Porter for Healy (31); D Sheehan for Kelleher (48); R Slimani for Furlong, L McGrath for Gibson-Park, R Henshaw for Ringrose (all 52); R Byrne for Prendergast (60); D Mangan for Snyman (61).
GLASGOW WARRIORS: K Rowe; J Dobie, S McDowall, T Jordan, K Steyn (capt); A Hastings, G Horne; N McBeth, J Matthews, S Talakai; G Brown, A Samuel; M Fagerson, R Darge, S Vailanu.
Replacements: JP du Preez for Vailanu (33 mins); G Stewart for Matthews, J Bhatti for McBeth (both 48); E Ferrie for Brown (55); P Schickerling for Talakai, M Williamson for Samuel, B Afshar for Horne (all 60); S Cancelliere for Fagerson (66).
Yellow card: A Hastings (22 mins).
Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng).
