Leinster class shines through in bruising URC semi-final that proved familiarity breeds contempt

URC semi-final: Leinster 37 Glasgow Warriors 19

There were reminders aplenty of the dominance exerted by Ireland and Leinster over their Scottish counterparts for much of the professional era. This United Rugby Championship semi-final had echoes of Ireland dismantling and eliminating Scotland in the World Cup at the Stade de France, both in the scale of the victory and the undercurrent of hostility bubbling between the two sides.

Watching Adam Hastings grappling with, and sneering at James Lowe toward the end of the first half – by which point Leinster were almost out of sight – brought to mind some of the scuffles that day in Paris as well. Once again, it made you wonder why some Scottish players seem so intent on riling their Irish opposition.

Two late converted tries were of modest consolation to the Warriors and merely distorted the scoreline. Such was Leinster’s command of the physical exchanges that this was much closer to the 52-0 rout in the Champions Cup quarter-final two months ago than the hard-earned 13-5 win in a dead-rubber three weeks ago.

After all, Leinster had two tries ruled out in the first half for crossing and a forward pass, and Jordie Barrett also couldn’t ground the ball over the line. Furthermore, Sam Prendergast left behind 11 points off the tee by missing four conversions and a penalty.

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They say familiarity breeds contempt and it’s evident that this ultra-focused and ruthless upgrade on Leinster’s previous two displays was a backhanded compliment to Glasgow in dethroning the champions.

It was evident, right from the start, that Leinster were in the mood

“When you play a team you play quite frequently, and that gives it back to you in spades, there is that motivation to do your best,” admitted Jack Conan afterwards. “We spoke just about being physical and dominant and we were for the majority and that is really pleasing. We’ll use this as another stepping stone for next week.”

Equally as revealing was Jamison Gibson-Park when he told an array of ex-players-turned-pundits on Premier Sports: “I suppose it was the ideal opponent for us in the semi-finals. We’ve a bit of history with Glasgow. We’ve had some ding-dong battles with them over the years.”

Dan Sheehan celebrates with Jamison Gibson-Park after scoring Leinster's first try against Glasgow Warriors. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

It was evident, right from the start, that Leinster were in the mood. Prendergast’s hanging kick-off led to Tommy O’Brien leading the charge as Henco Venter was engulfed. He conceded a penalty for not releasing.

Cue a kick to the corner, a lineout maul and a patient power play which culminated in the first of another brace by Dan Sheehan, thus taking his tally to 14 for the season.

When Leinster are “on it” like they were here, to quote Conan, it serves to demonstrate how under-par their display was a week beforehand against the Scarlets. It also makes the performance against Northampton in the Champions Cup semi-final harder to understand, particularly the lack of urgency and intensity in defence.

As well as dominating on the ground, rarely has a team so reigned supreme in the air as Leinster did here. Franco Smith must regret restoring Hastings’s kicking game to outhalf and seeking to target a fired-up Lowe in the air. Even so, the gulf in class was so pronounced that it probably didn’t make a huge difference to the outcome.

Tacit admittance of this came at half-time when Hastings was withdrawn and the departing Tom Jordan shifted back to outhalf, from where he had orchestrated the commanding quarter-final win over the Stormers.

While four of the six tries were down to the pack’s dominance and power plays, a couple were a product of the highly-skilled, high-tempo rugby they are capable of producing when also in the mood.

The counterattack to set up an overload on the blindside of the recycle was nicely worked. The crowd witnessed quick hands by Prendergast, Barrett and Jimmy O’Brien before Lowe’s one-handed offload sent Jamie Osborne through to finish along the touchline. That made it 15-5 and was vintage Leinster. So too was the bout of continuity initiated by Lowe’s high take and carry, and support play by Ryan Baird which culminated in Tommy O’Brien keeping the ball alive for Ciarán Frawley to finish.

“We always want to play at pace,” said Conan, although there seemed to be a much more concerted effort to do so in this match than in that pedestrian quarter-final against the Scarlets.

Leinster's Ryan Baird, who was outstanding throughout, offloads the ball. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

“If you look at our athletes, the players, we have pace across the board. We want to stretch teams, we want to put them under pressure, we want to play quick from rucks.”

Nor was this a pre-ordained tactic, as such. “It was just the way the game developed. It started fast, we had the ball a lot. Sometimes you can get sucked into kick-battles and stuff like that and you are trying to play territory or whatever.

“But that wasn’t the case today. We rolled up our sleeves and got to work and got the bit of pace which suits us.”

The energy brought by the less exposed players this season, such as Tom Clarkson, Baird, Osborne and the O’Briens, underlined that going deep into a season requires going deep into a squad.

In his fifth successive 80-minute outing, the outstanding Baird never let up, invariably leading Leinster’s hungry kick-chase, even when first to a long restart in the 79th minute.

Watched by Andy Farrell, the thought occurred that such a rare talent should really be a Lion.

SCORING SEQUENCE – 3 mins: Sheehan try, Prendergast con, 7-0; 5: Horne try, 7-5; 23: Prendergast pen, 10-5; 28: Osborne try, 15-5; 33: Clarkson try, 20-5; (half-time 20-5); 41: Sheehan try, 25-5; 54: Osborne try, Prendergast con, 32-5; 58: Frawley try, 37-5; 72: Dobie try, Jordan con, 37-12; 79: Tuipulotu try, Jordan con, 37-19.

LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, Jack Conan (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher for Sheehan, RG Snyman for Ryan (both 55 mins); Rabah Slimani for Clarkson, Ciarán Frawley for Barrett (both 56); Jack Boyle for Porter (59); Ross Byrne for Prendergast (61); Max Deegan for Conan (64); Luke McGrath for Gibson-Park (70 mins).

GLASGOW WARRIORS: Josh McKay; Kyle Steyn (capt), Sione Tuipulotu, Tom Jordan, Kyle Rowe; Adam Hastings, George Horne; Jamie Bhatti, Gregor Hiddleston, Fin Richardson; Alex Samuel, Scott Cummings; Euan Ferrie, Rory Darge, Henco Venter.

Replacements: Stafford McDowall for Hastings (h-t); Johnny Matthews for Hiddleston, Rory Sutherland for Bhatti, Sam Talakai for Richardson, Max Williamson for Samuel (all 45 mins); Jamie Dobie for Horne (52); Macenzzie Duncan for Venter (59), Jack Mann for Ferrie (73).

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).