Glasgow got their new Magners League campaign off to the perfect start with a gutsy 23-19 victory over Leinster on Friday.
A fiercely-contested first half opened quietly enough with Fergus McFadden and Ruaridh Jackson exchanging penalties in the opening five minutes, before Dominic Ryan almost took advantage of a Glasgow handling error after he had hacked the ball to the home try-line.
Ryan was denied again a minute later when Jamie Heaslip put him through a gap, only for the pass to be adjudged forward, but McFadden soon afterwards added his second penalty.
Yet it was third time lucky for Ryan when Heaslip seized on a Fergus Thomson overthrow and put the flanker racing in from 40 metres.
With six minutes of the half to go, Glasgow lost their own line-out throw and the resulting hack on led to a mix-up behind the Glasgow line, before Isaac Boss got a hand on the ball for the softest of tries.
Glasgow came out all guns blazing in the second half and Jackson pulled the margin back with a penalty - and the confidence started to grow as the half went on.
First, DTH van der Merwe crashed over in the corner and Duncan Weir, on for Jackson, slotted the equalising conversion.
Only desperate defence kept the rampaging Gray and Richie Vernon out but the pressure told, Glasgow went through the phases and set up Weir for the drop-goal which took the home side ahead for the first time in the game.
Isa Nacewa got on the board with a penalty six minutes from time to level the scores but Glasgow were not to be denied and after Leinster offended at the line-out, Weir made no mistake from 30 metres.
With the last kick of the game, Nacewa's attempted drop drifted wide as Glasgow held on for a morale-boosting win on the season's opening night.
The scorers:
For Glasgow:
Tries: Van der Merwe
Con: Weir
Pens: Jackson 3, Weir
Drop: Weir
For Leinster:
Tries: Boss, Ryan
Pens: Nacewa, McFadden 2
Glasgow:15 Bernardo Stortoni (c), 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Federico Aramburu, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Ryan Wilson, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Tom Ryder, 3 Moray Low, 2 Fergus Thomson, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements:16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Ed Kalman, 18 Ryan Grant, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Rob Harley, 21 Duncan Weir, 22 Hefin O'Hare, 23 Peter Murchie
Leinster:15 Luke Fitzgerald, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Niall Morris, 10 Isa Nacewa, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien (c), 6 Dominic Ryan, 5 Ed O'Donoghue, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Simon Shawe, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements:16 John Fogarty 17 Jack McGrath 18 Ben Prescott 19 Mariano Galarza 20 Stephen Keogh 21 Paul O'Donohoe 22 Ian Madigan 23 Eamonn Sheridan
Referee: Tim Hayes (Wales)
Comments
5Lock4ward says...
Richie Gray was a monster in the line-out and at the breakdown. Weir was certainly the hero with the boot. The announcers kept talking about how Leinster were missing all their big name players but so was Glasgow; the Killer B's (I know one of them left for good, same for Parks), their inspirational leader and 2nd Row Kellock, and their national team co-captain, Scotland International and British Lion scrum-half Cusiter...so nice try announcers but they were on even ground as far as numbers of missing personnel were concerned. And don't everybody go getting in a tizzy saying that I'm insinuating any of the missing Galsgow players was the equivalent of Brian O'Driscoll, because those words didn't come out of my mouth. I said 'numbers' of missing players.
Posted 01:52 04th September 2010