A SENSATIONAL display of finishing by Tommy Seymour gave Glasgow Warriors a winning start on Scotstoun’s new artificial surface yesterday, and confirmed their status as the team to beat in this season’s PRO12. It was touch and go at times against Leinster, who led by 10 points at one stage in the second half, but the winger’s four tries and another from Tim Swinson, plus four Henry Pyrgos conversions, were just enough.
There were defensive shortcomings to concern Gregor Townsend, but the key point was that Glasgow once more upped their game when they had to. At this stage of a long campaign you neither need nor expect perfection, but the head coach can take substantial satisfaction from a result which enhances the extremely positive impression from last week’s trouncing of Connacht, and gives his team the maximum 10 points after two games. The Warriors mean serious business, and are laying on richly entertaining rugby at the same time.
“We should have been more behind at half-time,” Townsend said. “We weren’t on our game defensively in the first half.
"I’m delighted that we got through, thanks to Tommy, who played a massive role, but also we did play much better in the second half. Defensively it was a massive improvement. We’ve got work to do, even though we did score five tries - we just weren’t as accurate as we were last week. But it’s a great start to the season.”
Pyrgos missed the chance to be the first scorer on the new pitch when he was short with an early attempt at goal, awarded after Stuart Hogg had been obstructed while chasing his own high kick. That was as close as either team came to scoring in an opening ten-minute spell dominated by solid defence, but then the Warriors made the breakthrough with a clever move.
Pyrgos did the initial damage with a grubber kick, then several phases later Sam Johnson threw an excellent miss pass for Seymour to run in the opening try from just inside the 22. The scrum-half was again off target with the conversion attempt from the left touchline.
Having shown their attacking prowess, Glasgow had to switch to defensive duties after that, and shunted a Leinster maul into touch right on the left corner flag. Minutes later they could not prevent Rob Kearney from scoring in the same corner, and Joey Carbery’s conversion put the visitors in front. But the lead did not last, as the Warriors forced their way ever closer to the Leinster line until Swinson forced his way over between the posts, with some timely assistance from Rob Harley. Pyrgos was on target this time to make it 12-7.
Five minutes before the break Warriors winger Leonardo Sarto was yellow-carded for an offence close to his own line, and although Leinster’s initial attempt to score from a lineout drive was thwarted, their openside Josh van der Flier soon broke through the middle close to a ruck to score his team’s second try. Carbery restored Leinster’s lead from in front of the posts, then in the last play of the half the Irishmen really made the extra man count when Zane Kirchner collected a Carbery diagonal to score in the right corner.
It was a clever kick, but the bounce could have gone anywhere, and it was the Warriors’ misfortune that it sat up perfectly for the winger. Carbery failed to convert. leaving the score at the break 12-19, but he stretched the lead to double figures with a penalty three minutes after the restart.
Glasgow needed the next score to get back into contention, and they got the full seven points when Seymour picked off a loose Carbery pass to run in unopposed from 30 metres and Pyrgos converted. Minutes later, Leinster’s attempt to attack from deep ended in a fumble, and Seymour gathered on the deck just inside the visitors’ half. He had more ground to make and more defenders in the way than for his second score, but he squeezed clear of two forwards then just outstripped three more pursuers in his race for the line. Pyrgos converted again, but then a Carbery penalty made it a one-point game at 26-25.
Hogg was marginally off target with a penalty from close to halfway, but then, with barely five minutes to go, Seymour scored his fourth, cutting in on a reverse angle to scythe through the defence. Another successful conversion from Pyrgos put the Warriors eight points clear, and Leinster were unable to get the score which would have at least sent them home with a losing bonus point.
Scorers: Glasgow: Tries: Seymour 4, Swinson. Cons: Pyrgos 4.
Leinster: Tries: R Kearney, Van der Flier, Kirchner. Cons: Carbery 2. Pens: Carbery 2.
Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; L Sarto (L Jones 69), A Dunbar, S Johnson, T Seymour; P Horne, H Pyrgos; G Reid (A Allan 69), F Brown (C Flynn 69), S Puafisi (Z Fagerson 49), T Swinson (T Uanivi 77), J Gray, R Harley, S Favaro (L Wynne 69), R Wilson. Subs not used: A Price, R Clegg.
Leinster: R Kearney (R O’Loughlin 59); Z Kirchner, G Ringrose, N Reid, D Kearney; J Carbery (C Marsh 77), L McGrath (J Gibson-Park 64); C Healy (P Dooley 59), J Tracy (B Byrne 59)) , M Bent (T Furlong 47), R Molony, M McCarthy (M Kearney 59), D Leavy (D Ryan 70), J van der Flier, J Murphy.
Referee: J Lacey (Ireland). Attendance: 7251.
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