FOR John Petrie, as much as for Brian O’Driscoll, this was another much-needed staging-post on the hard road towards international rehabilitation. The Glasgow captain however, could not quite see it that way after an eight-try mauling at the Royal Dublin Showground.
While more than 12,000 home fans went home happy, Petrie was left to reflect on yet more evidence of Glasgow’s miserable status as one of the whipping boys of the Heineken Cup.
“I suppose you could say we showed some good spirit in the second half, scoring two final tries ourselves in the closing minutes and limiting them to just three scores after a first half that was fairly embarrassing,” he said.
“Some of our guys put in some good individual performances and I thought Kevin Tkachuk was outstanding with his ball-carrying but that’s about it. Those kind of things are merely a few bright spots in a pretty dark day. The whole competition has been extremely disappointing for us, but at least we have one more game to look forward to, against Bourgoin next Sunday.”
Five defeats out of five and just a solitary bonus point overall, makes for grim reading for the Scottish side, and for all their ability to weave some pretty patterns they simply do not possess the power up front or the craft at half-back to trouble’s Europe’s best.
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For Scotland’s national selectors, meanwhile, there was only the continuing comeback from long-term injury of Petrie at No 8 and the finishing ability of Rory Lamont to interest them. Andy Henderson, at outside centre, came off decidedly second best against O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy, although the Ireland captain is still far from being back to his best.
Lamont produced an excellent first-half interception try, in which he seized on a loose pass from O’Driscoll and then brushed off his despairing challenge before springing clear of the remaining Leinster cover to score under the posts.
Glasgow’s other tries came from Mike Roberts, the replacement wing, who leapt to claim a chip to the left corner and plunge over, and from John Barclay, the hard-working flanker.
Leinster would have been out of sight by half-time, if Felipe Contepomi the fly-half, had not had a rare off day with the boot. Bizarrely, he missed with every conversion attempt of their five first-half tries and Glasgow, on the scoreboard at least, if not in reality, still remained in touch at 25-10 at the interval after Dan Parks had added a penalty to Lamont’s solo score.
Two tries by O’Driscoll, however, his first scores in a first full 80 minutes of rugby since his Lions tour shoulder injury in June, soon made sure there would be no romantic second-half Scottish rally.
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O’Driscoll looks sharper in some parts of his game, as he battles to be ready to lead Ireland in the RBS Six Nations Championship, but in the contact areas and in the tackle he remains perhaps understandably tentative.
Michael Cheika, the Leinster coach, said afterwards he was disappointed with aspects of his team’s display — specifically consistency in linking forward and back play — but Petrie still expects the Irish team to qualify for the quarter-finals by beating Bath in next weekend’s final group match.
Bath are already through to the last eight, and Leinster will join them as one of the best runners-up if they can win at the Recreation Ground.
“Based on this performance, I would go for Leinster to get the victory, but it will be a close match,” Petrie added. “Leinster obviously have a hell of a lot to play for next week and they have a lot of fine players — especially in the back.”
SCORERS: Leinster: Tries: Jowitt 2 (7min, 40 + 3), Horgan: (18), Dempsey (27), Contepomi (36), O’Driscoll 2 (52, 76), Hickie (80+2). Conversions: Contepomi 3. Glasgow: Tries: Lamont (22), Roberts (80), Barclay (80+5). Conversions: Parks, Gregor. Penalty goal: Parks (33).
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SCORING SEQUENCE (Leinster first): 5-0, 10-0. 10-7. 15-7. 15-10, 20-10, 25-10 (half-time) 32-10. 39-10, 39-15, 46-15, 46-22.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey (rep: R Kearney 72); S Horgan (rep: K Lewis, 72), B O’Driscoll, G Darcy, D Hickie; F Contempomi, G Easterby (rep: B O’Riordan, 72); R Corrigan (sin-bin 75), B Blaney (rep: D Blaney, 72): E Byrne (rep: R McCormack, 62), B Williams, M O’Kelly (rep: A Byrnes, 72), C Jowitt (rep: N Ronan, 41), E Miller, K Gleeson (rep: E Byrne, 80).
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GLASGOW: G Staniforth (rep: M Roberts, 41); H O’Hare, G Morrison, A Henderson, R Lamont; D Parks (rep: C Gregor, 62); G Beveridge (rep: S Pinder, 53); K Tkachuk, S Lawson (rep: F Thomson, 41), E Murray, D Turner (rep: T Barker, 41; rep: L Harrison, 66), C Hamilton, S Swindall (rep: G Hayter, 62), J Petrie, J Barclay (sin-bin, 38-45).
Referee: J Jutge (France).
Attendance: 12,443