Unstoppable Leinster give Glasgow Warriors the Harlequins treatment as Irish province hammer humiliated Scots in Champions Cup quarter-final
Tommy O'Brien scoring a try for Leinster against Glasgow Warriors in the Champions Cup.
Leinster made an even greater statement as they qualified for the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals with a stunning 52-0 triumph over Glasgow Warriors.
A week after embarrassing Harlequins, this time it was the team who reside in second position in the United Rugby Championship that were on the receiving end of a hammering.
While Glasgow were missing some key players, not even a full strength outfit would have got close to Leinster, such was the magnificence of the Irish province.
They got the job done in the opening period, going into the interval 33-0 in front thanks to scores from Max Deegan, James Lowe, Tommy O’Brien, Hugo Keenan and a penalty try.
With the game won, the hosts were not quite as fluent in the second period, although they touched down three more times through Garry Ringrose, Dan Sheehan and Deegan.
Ultimately, Leinster’s main focus late on was their defence and for the second Champions Cup knockout match running they remarkably kept their opponents scoreless.
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Few realistically gave Glasgow a chance before the game and those predictions were proven correct in a thundering first half from the hosts.
From the outset, the Irish province were utterly dominant as they continually stressed the Warriors in all facets of the game. Although the visitors somehow held out in the first 10 minutes, the opening score was pretty much inevitable.
An early Jordie Barrett try had already been ruled out when Deegan finally rewarded their pressure. The passing was crisp, the lines of running exceptional and it resulted in the back-rower, who had come in for Caelan Doris, touching down after delightful contributions from Barrett and O’Brien.
Doris would soon appear from the bench, though, due to an unfortunate injury to Jack Conan and, if anything, it improved the Irish province.
The Ireland captain came on wanting to make his mark and his relentlessness was very much matched by his team-mates as they scored their second try after 23 minutes.
Built on that Jacques Nienaber-designed defence, they turned the Warriors over close to their own line. Sam Prendergast spotted the space on the outside and Adam Hastings panicked and deliberately knocked the ball on, leading to a penalty try and yellow card.
With Hastings off the field, Leinster effectively ended the game as a contest in the subsequent 10 minutes, crossing the whitewash twice in that period.
Lowe went over for the first, latching onto Jamison Gibson-Park’s superb wide pass, before O’Brien finished brilliantly after Keenan’s equally delightful piece of skill.
Hastings returned following that blitz but, just after he came back onto the field, Leinster scored a fifth. Having assisted the fourth try, Keenan was this time the beneficiary of some fine work by his cohorts as Prendergast grubbered through for the classy full-back to go over.
At half-time, there were fears the Leinstermen would inflict yet another humiliation on their opponents, and so it proved.
Glasgow actually began the second half reasonably well as they finally managed to string a few phases together, but it did not last long as Leinster soon got their hands on the ball.
Once again, the Scottish outfit could not cope with their opponents’ power and dexterity on the gain line and Ringrose duly weaved his way over the line to take them 40 points in front.
Sheehan followed him across the whitewash as the half century beckoned with a quarter of the match remaining, but they had to wait until five minutes from the end to reach it as Deegan completed his brace.
It ended the scoring as Glasgow, like Quins, failed to breach this impregnable Leinster defence.
The teams
Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Tommy O’Brien, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Jack Conan (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Max Deegan, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Diarmuid Mangan, 20 Caelan Doris, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Robbie Henshaw
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Jamie Dobie, 13 Stafford McDowall, 12 Tom Jordan, 11 Kyle Steyn (c), 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Sione Vailanu, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Alex Samuel, 4 Gregor Brown, 3 Sam Talakai, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Nathan McBeth
Replacements: 16 Grant Stewart, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Patrick Schickerling, 19 JP du Preez, 20 Max Williamson, 21 Euan Ferrie, 22 Ben Afshar, 23 Sebastian Cancelliere
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Anthony Woodthorpe (England), Adam Leal (England)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)