Home comfort for Leinster
Leinster will host Irish rivals Ulster in next week's Magners League semi-finals after crushing Glasgow 38-3.
Last Updated: 06/05/11 9:52pm
Leinster will host Irish rivals Ulster in next week's Magners League semi-finals after crushing Glasgow 38-3 in Dublin.
The Heineken Cup finalists ran in four tries in the closing 25 minutes to earn a bonus-point win over a fast-fading Warriors side.
Glasgow were only 6-3 adrift at half-time, but tries from Shane Horgan, Gordon D'Arcy, Dominic Ryan and Kevin McLaughlin earned Leinster what was ultimately a comfortable wn.
Man of the match Fergus McFadden kicked 18 points, with Duncan Weir's seventh minute penalty the only score for the visitors.
The Warriors enjoyed the best of the early territory, Chris Cusiter working his pack through the phases and they were rewarded with a long range penalty strike from Weir.
The Glasgow pack kept their Leinster counterparts in check during the first quarter-hour, but a classy counter attack from Isa Nacewa sparked Leinster into life and Ian Madigan probed with the boot, keeping the Scots pinned back in their half.
From a scrum in the 22, McLaughlin was held up close to the posts. But Ryder conceded a penalty for killing the ball and McFadden tapped over the simple shot.
Leinster went ahead with a 35 metre penalty from McFadden and Weir, with the last kick of the half, was narrowly wide from a difficult position to the right of the posts.
Beattie was penalised for holding on after trying to break from a scrum, allowing McFadden to kick the opening points of the second half.
Turning point
Then came the game's turning point when Glasgow full-back Peter Murchie was sin-binned for coming in on the wrong side of a ruck. During his time off the pitch, Leinster scored 15 points.
McFadden kicked his third penalty and shortly afterwards, Madigan's high kick to the right was seized on by Horgan, who managed to scramble over the line past van der Merwe.
McFadden added the extras to D'Arcy's 58th-minute touchdown, following a powerful burst from stand-in captain Jamie Heaslip.
Replacement David Kearney then delighted the home crowd with two solo runs. His first attack almost led to a try for Heaslip. The second did, Ryan pouncing on a loose ball that Glasgow failed to deal with.
McFadden converted and did likewise after McLaughlin stormed through a couple of tackles and stretched over for Leinster's bonus-point try.
The Dublin side are now just three wins away from a domestic and European double.
