Rugby Column Number 97: The Kildare Nationalist – November 7 2017

Adam Byrne was on the scoresheet at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday evening, but a youthful Leinster team ultimately suffered a set-back against Glasgow Warriors in a high-scoring Guinness PRO14 encounter.

With Ireland’s opening game of the November Series coming up this Saturday – two-time world champions South Africa will provide the opposition at the Aviva Stadium – a number of front-line international stars were rested for the Blues’ trip to the Scottish city.

Kill’s Byrne has been included in Joe Schmidt’s squad for the upcoming games with the Springboks, Fiji and Argentina, but he was released to feature alongside Jordan Larmour and Dave Kearney in the back-three.

Westmeath native Conor O’Brien was making his debut at inside centre, and he was joined in midfield by Rory O’Loughlin. Sean Cronin (who has been left out of the Ireland squad for the autumn internationals) and Jordi Murphy were notable inclusions in the Leinster pack, and in the absence of Luke McGrath, Jamison Gibson-Park was hoping to once again show that he is capable of making an impact as a starting scrum-half.

Indeed, the New Zealander enjoyed a dream start to the game, as he got through for the opening try of the game on four minutes. This was followed by a conversion from Ross Byrne, and even though Glasgow replied with a George Horne five-pointer, O’Loughlin restored the Leinster lead by touching down in the 10th-minute.

Another Ross Byrne bonus strike opened up a seven-point gap in favour of the visitors (14-7), but just past the first-quarter, Glasgow managed wrap up a bonus score. Nick Grigg (two) and George Horne completed strong attacking moves by the Warriors, and with Peter Horne adding successful conversions to each of these efforts, they had placed themselves in the driving seat.

Indeed, Peter Horne brought his personal tally up to 11 points with a 33rd-minute penalty, which meant that Glasgow entered the interval with a commanding 31-14 cushion. This presented Leinster with an uphill task when the action resumed, but as the opening stages of the contest showed, they were more than capable of getting something from the game.

Leinster required a bright start to the second period if they wanted to work their way back into contention, and Adam Byrne raced over in the right-corner just six minutes after the restart. There was some initial doubt over the try, but after the TMO ruled in favour of the Leinster winger, his namesake Ross narrow the deficit with his third bonus kick of the night.

Yellow cards for Scott Cummings and Alex Dunbar meant that Leinster had a numerical supremacy for large stretches of the half, and it was anticipated that they would at least come away with at least one bonus point in defeat.

This didn’t quite materialise for an inexperienced outfit, however, and they eventually fell to a 21-31 reversal – which sees them dropping down to third place in Conference B at the end of round eight.

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