‘Impressive’ Leinster might be better than Ireland as Franco Smith concedes Glasgow were ‘completely bullied’
Glasgow Warriors boss Franco Smith had “no excuses” for his team’s performance in their 52-0 Investec Champions Cup defeat to Leinster.
All Blacks star Jordie Barrett produced a man-of-the-match performance as Leinster ran in eight tries and nilled the Scottish outfit in an emphatic quarter-final victory.
Reflecting on the match, Smith praised Leinster and the club’s set-up, a team he believes to be “far ahead of everyone else” in the Champions Cup and could be better than Ireland.
Glasgow Warriors simply outplayed
“They were brilliant, I’m not even going to try make excuses from our side… It’s the first time that we have been completely bullied in every part of the game,” the coach told Premier Sports.
He echoed those sentiments in the post-match press conference, stating that Glasgow isn’t the first team to be outplayed by Leinster, who are effectively an international outfit.
The Leinster starting XV had only one player, Tommy O’Brien, who is yet to play international rugby, and the same is true on the bench with rookie lock Diarmuid Mangan being the only player yet to play a Test match.
“Obviously we are disappointed but if you look at it, we were outplayed by an international team,” Smith said.
“They haven’t played much since the Six Nations so they are fresh, and they have a point to prove in Europe, but we still came with our best intent, and I can’t fault the effort of the boys – We were just absolutely outplayed in every facet of the game.
“I’m not the first coach to sit here and say that, other coaches have sat here and said how good they are.
“For me, we’ve been winning quite a bit and pushing the players’ boundaries and limits every week but today they found out what is still needed to be competitive in international rugby or the top end of club rugby.”
Are Leinster better than Ireland?
Smith won’t be mulling over the margin of the defeat as Glasgow’s attention turns to defending their United Rugby Championship title.
He admits this kind of defeat happens once a season and his side simply came up against a better team.
“The final score as a reflection of the game looks big but if you are chasing 33-0 at half-time, you are going to take chances in areas of the field where you shouldn’t and that leads to other points,” he continued.
“Once a year or once a season, with a good team, blips like this happen and unfortunately for us, we came up against an extremely good team.
“They scored 62 points against Harlequins last week and now they have scored 114 points in two games. They are doing something really well and that’s where the compliment sits tonight.
“I’m going to brush the result off, we didn’t not rock up, we just got beaten by a very strong team that is so far ahead of every club in the competition.”
There is a suggestion that Leinster are actually a better team than Ireland and a notion that Smith doesn’t disagree with, pointing to the club’s two international recruits.
“There was a comment last week that they are better than Ireland, you replace Bundee Aki with Jordie Barrett it’s different and then you have a two-time World Cup winner in the locks [RG Snyman],” he said.
“It’s impressive, I think Leinster demands results like this with the quality and depth they have in the squad and if they don’t; then it is them who are not performing.
“That second squad went to South Africa and picked up points against full-strength South African teams, we need to put it into perspective. Have we missed players tonight? Yes, but that is not an excuse. What I am excited about is that nine or 10 of our players got the opportunity to experience this.”
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