Leinster leave it late to secure win

Leinster 22 Glasgow 16

In the end, the home side were probably slightly fortunate to pick up four points but Glasgow didn’t appear to have the know how or cutting edge to punish Declan Kidney’s side.

Towards the end the visitors got their act together, crossing for a 75th minute try through Colin Shaw but Leinster simply upped the tempo in the last few minutes to seal the victory with a Ben Gissing try. The home side’s preparations were disrupted shortly before kick-off when Emmet Byrne was called up to the Irish squad to offer cover for the ill Marcus Horan and his place was taken by John Lyne.

The late switch didn’t appear to bother the home side unduly and they took a 15-3 lead into the interval.

Kiwi out-half Dave Holwell got the first try, after he sold a beautiful dummy to drift past the Glasgow defence and touch down under the posts.

The Leinster player of the month added the convert and nine minutes later the home side breached the Glasgow defence for a second time. Gary Brown and Dave Hewitt did the initial damage with a break down the left, and when the ball was spun right at the breakdown, Shane Jennings crossed the line in the right hand corner.

From there, Glasgow owned much of the play but all they had to show for their efforts was a 16th minute penalty from out-half Calvin Howarth, a score that was effectively cancelled out by a Holwell penalty for Leinster 11 minutes later.

Howarth kicked his second penalty of the game on 54 minutes to narrow the gap between the sides and then with eight minutes on the clock, the Scots finally got the try their efforts deserved.

Steve Swindall and Sam Pinder combined to run the ball 50 yards down the pitch and full-back Shaw finished off the move. Howarth’s subsequent conversion left two points between the sides but a gripping finale never materialised.

Instead, Leinster upped the tempo and got their third try of the game thanks to Gissing.

LEINSTER: D Hewitt; K Lewis, C Warner, D Quinlan, G Brown; D Holwell, B O’Meara; J Lyne, D Blaney, R Nebbett, L Cullen, B Gissing, C Potts, D Dillon, S Jennings Replacements: N Ronan for Jennings, 55mins; A McCullen for Potts, 60mins; B O’Riordan for O’Meara, 63mins; P Coyle for Lyne, 73mins.

GLASGOW: C Shaw; R Kerr, A Craig, G Maclure, K Logan; C Howarth, G Beveridge; K Tkachuk, S Lawson, A Kelly, A Hall, D Turner, C Mather, J Beattie, A Wilson. Replacements: S Pinder for Beveridge, 49mins; D Millard for Maclure, 65mins; S Swindall for Wilson, 68mins; F Thomson for Lawson, 75mins; C Gregor for Pinder, 82mins.

Result: Celtic League: Borders (10) 35 Cardiff Blues (17) 25.

Zurich Premiership: Gloucester 24 Sale 14.