Analysis.
Pages 2, 3
Sean Lineen, the Glasgow Warriors coach, believes his side can bounce back from the Heineken Cup humiliation they suffered in Dublin yesterday afternoon, when memories of their dramatic victory against Bath eight days ago were obliterated by a 38-13 hammering by reigning champions Leinster.
“We were caught with our pants down,” admitted Lineen after the Irish side tore apart Glasgow in the first half, their superiority emphasised by the fact they had secured their four-try bonus point before the end of that period. The Warriors revived themselves after the break, but by that stage Leinster had nothing to play for.
“We got well and truly spanked,” continued an ashen Lineen afterwards. “In the first half there was only one team in it. They won the contact battle hands down, both in attack and defence. We just made it far too easy for them.
“They had a walk in the park in the first half, and the game was over. They were more intense than us – very direct, very abrasive, as we knew they would be. There were four or five instances when they stripped the ball from us like candy from a baby. It was men against boys at times.
“Our guys are better than that. We knew it would be tough but they stuck it to us. We’ll learn from it, but that first 40 minutes was pretty hard to watch. I’m disappointed for the players. They’ve put a lot of effort in over the past two months. We could not get any momentum at all, and some of their tries were ridiculously easy.”
Rob Kearney, the Ireland full-back, got the first of those tries in the fourth minute, however, Glasgow’s worst period came later in the first half when they allowed centre Eoin O’Malley to scamper over for two touchdowns despite the fact his side had been reduced to 14 men by the sin-binning of Devin Toner a few minutes earlier.
Henry Pyrgos, Glasgow’s replacement scrum-half, pulled one back for the Warriors when he touched down 10 minutes before the final whistle, but the last word was delivered by Leinster’s Isaac Boss, who claimed his side’s fifth try in the 79th minute. Glasgow have just a five-day turnaround before they take on Ulster in the RaboDirect PRO 12 league at Firhill on Friday.
Their next Heineken Cup matches are back-to-back meetings with Montpellier next month. Lineen promised that lessons will be learned from yesterday’s game and they will not be so poor again.
“We’ll fix it,” said the coach. “We were starting to build something, a bit of momentum with five wins on the trot before this game. To get well and truly beaten here is something we have to learn from. We have to regroup now.”
Lineen’s message was echoed by Al Kellock, the Warriors captain. “We spoke about the fact we had to be at our best to win this game and we weren’t anywhere near that,” he said. “We were poor, Leinster were good, that’s the simple fact.
“We have to come up with solutions. But we can do it. We’ve done it before.”
The one mercy for Glasgow is that they came through the match relatively unscathed. Flanker John Barclay took a blow to the jaw, but it is not thought to be serious. Chris Cusiter suffered a cut to his face, but he was able to continue after treatment.
Trouncing in Dublin brings Glasgow Warriors back down to earth with a bump
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