Warriors stake claim to an upward curve

Senior Sports Writer

Monday 14 May 2012

The progress Glasgow Warriors have made and what they still need to do to match European rugby's best were both much in evidence as they lost their RaboDirect Pro12 semi-final to Leinster 19-15 at The RDS.

John Barclay evades a pair of Leinster tacklers. Photograph: Gary Fox/PA

Custom byline text:

Kevin Ferrie

Late tries by Dougie Hall and Stuart Hogg could be interpreted as having given the scoreline a slightly flattering look on Saturday. However, on a night when they competed fiercely throughout, it was actually the 16-point deficit they had left themselves to claw back at that stage that gave a misleading impression of the overall shape of the game.

As Leinster's badly bruised and blood-spattered players will testify while trying to recover in time for Saturday's Heineken Cup final, Glasgow are not the soft touches they were when Sean Lineen took charge of them six years ago.There is, though, still a naivete about this largely youthful side's play when compared with the continent's leading sides. It manifested itself in some nervous-looking errors which prevented them from capitalising on their competitiveness at the breakdown and defensive resolve. Lineen pointed to set-piece failings, notably three squint line-out throws and allowing themselves to be pushed off a scrum on their own put-in when in excellent field position, as having been uncharacteristic of their recent work in those areas.Al Kellock, their captain, felt that a knock-on as they attacked Leinster in the early stages of the second half when 9-3 down was a vital mistake.A couple of missed kicks at goal by the normally reliable Duncan Weir were also symptomatic of edginess, while the young play-maker was a bit too anxious to kick the ball in open play as Glasgow struggled, particularly in the first half, to build pressure because they had insufficient possession.Weir's strength of personality means he will only gain from the experience but, on the day, the difference between his performance and that of the more composed Johnny Sexton, rightly given the man-of-the-match award, perhaps best exemplified the difference between these sides.Leinster knew how to do the right things to bring about victory, as Lineen generously acknowledged. "I'm proud of the players, but it is about winning and I just so wanted them to experience that in an environment like this. It would have been fantastic," he said."Leinster were on their knees with the injuries they'd had, but what a performance from them. We gave them a lot of hard decisions, but they were outstanding and played like a champion team. That's what champions are made of. They're very tough to break down, very clever. They worked incredibly hard and made it very difficult."They're very slick and they've got 15 decision makers on the ball and 15 loose forwards in defence. Most teams have five of one and 10 of the other or whatever, but they have it all. They know that's what they need to do and they're incredibly difficult to play against."Increasingly the same description can be applied to Glasgow, however, and if one passage of play demonstrated just how tough they now are to break down – thanks to the work done by outgoing defence coach Gary Mercer – it was in the closing stages of the first half.With Alex Dunbar in the sin bin, the 14 men spent something approaching five solid minutes holding their line at a stage while trailing 9-3 through three Sexton penalties to one from Weir, and knowing that to let Leinster score just before the interval would be psychologically important.They held out, then turned the tables early in the second half. But for all that a team without Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll had been forced through further injuries to change both starting centres, Leinster remained organised and resolute, crucially defying them.Sexton edged Leinster further ahead with a fourth penalty before tiredness took its inevitable toll on Glasgow, creating the space that allowed Isa Nacewa to exploit an overlap on the left to send over Dave Kearney for the clinching try.Had DTH van der Merwe given an inside pass to the supporting Hogg a few minutes later, Glasgow might still have had time to scare Leinster. However, in the end there were less than four minutes left when Hall scored their first try and the result had been secured by time running out as Hogg touched down to "win" the try count for his side.All that was left was to reflect and for the youngsters to get the chance to absorb one last life lesson from their coach in the grace demonstrated by Lineen as he looked to the future of a team that almost all in Scottish rugby reckon he should be preparing to take to new heights. "I honestly believe we are close to a turning point," he said. "I want Glasgow to win something next season because that means we've done our job. We've put them in a good place and then it's just keeping that momentum going and having that belief. They're not far away but this time we just gave Leinster a little bit too much ball in that first half and it's very hard to keep defending."

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Warriors stake claim to an upward curve

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED