Leinster rediscover their mojo to set up URC final tilt at Croke Park
Leinster's Jamie Osborne celebrates with Jordie Barrett, Joe McCarthy and Dan Sheehan after scoring his side's fifth try. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady
Leinster will contest their first ever BKT URC final at Croke Park next Saturday on the back of a dominant, six-try defeat of reigning champions Glasgow Warriors that finally puts their Champions Cup hangover to bed.
Beaten by Northampton Saints in that tie five weeks ago, Leo Cullen’s men hammered a desperate Zebre a week later but stuttered through a regular season league game against Glasgow and a quarter-final against the Scarlets.
It wasn’t just the performances but the words and the vibes emanating from camp in recent weeks that gave cause for concern. They still went into this as favourites and they lived up to that billing in front of a crowd of 15,762.
Their opponents a week from now will be one of the Bulls or Sharks who meet in the second semi-final in Pretoria today. Either one will make for a tough assignment, but the mood music in Dublin has utterly altered on the back of this.
Glasgow had shipped 76 and 52 points here in knockout games in recent years, and yet their last visit just weeks ago produced an edgy 13-5 win for the hosts. So this win may be the most satisfying of them all.
The opening five minutes here seemed to promise an epic.
Leinster were on the board first when they won a turnover penalty straight from the kickoff and turned the screw on the Glasgow try line for a succession of phases before a brilliant Jamison Gibson-Park pass gave Dan Sheehan the gap to scoot over.
Glasgow hit straight back and the ease with which they manoeuvred around the Leinster blitz on the sideline seemed ominous after the province’s recent defensive issues, scrum-half George Horne touching down from a Kyle Rowe break and kick.
It was all Leinster from there through to the break, 58% possession and 68% territory, but there was still an element of impatience and inaccuracy to them and it cost them two disallowed tries when Scott Penny and Jamie Osborne went over.
Prendergast, who missed eleven points off the tee on the day, tapped over a three-pointer at the start of the second quarter to push the score out to 10-5, and there was a huge moment just after Osborne’s first attempt at points was scratched off.
Two minutes later and a superb move illuminated by lightning hands from Jordie Barrett, Jimmy O’Brien and James Lowe set the young Kildare man free down the left and suddenly Glasgow looked to be in real trouble even at 15-5.
It got much worse.
Leinster had kept the scoreboard ticking over in last week’s quarter-final against Scarlets with three penalties but confidence was growing here and when they opted for a kick to the corner after the half-hour the reward was a bulldozing score from Thomas Clarkson.
It wasn’t all that long since a couple of flashpoints in front of the Warriors line. Now it felt as if the hopes of a meaningful contest were being trampled underfoot by a team that was rediscovering its mojo after a difficult month.
With the blood up, they again ignored an easy three in first-half injury-time and that paid off too as Sheehan went over from the back of a lineout maul for his second and his team’s fourth. That left it 25-5 at the interval.
Glasgow had five replacements on the field within five minutes of the restart. It didn’t matter.
Barrett was unlucky when going over in the 48th-minute as the referee and linesman saw him spill the ball in contact but not the high tackle that prompted it. That didn’t matter either. The tone had long been set.
Osborne went over for his second 54 minutes in. Like their first of the day, it came after a succession of phases close in and a bullet of a pass from Gibson-Park that skipped three men in blue and left an abundance of space to get in.
Ciaran Frawley added a sixth shortly after coming on and that was the day’s work basically done for Leinster with the last quarter yet to even start. Late retorts from Jamie Dobie and Sione Tuipulotu down the stretch served only as warnings that the job isn’t yet done.
Much more like it from Leinster.
: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, J Osborne, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, S Penny, J Conan.
Replacements: C Frawley for Barrett, R Slimani for Clarkson, R Kelleher for Sheehan and RG Snyman for Ryan (all 56); J Boyle for Porter (60); R Byrne for Prendergast (61); M Deegan for Conan (64); L McGrath for Gibson-Park (70).
J McKay; K Steyn, S Tuipulotu, T Jordan, K Rowe; A Hastings, G Horne; J Bhatti, G Hiddleston; F Richardson, A Samuel; S Cummings, E Ferrie, R Darge, H Venter.
Replacements: S McDowall for Hastings (HT); J Matthews for Hiddleston, R Sutherland for Bhatti, S Talakai for Richardson and M Williamson for Samuel (all 45); J Dobie for Horne (52); M Duncan for Venter (60); J Mann for Ferrie (73).
: A Piardi (FIR).
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