Leinster Rugby vs Glasgow Warriors
United Rugby Championship, Quarter Final
RDS Arena, Dublin
Saturday, 4th June 2022, 15:15

TV: Live: Premier Sports, RTE

Well it was déjà vu all over again... again!

This time it was meant to be different. Leinster would be too quick for the big La Rochelle pack that slowed them down the previous season. Everyone said so! If you scanned the media coverage in all interested countries before the final no one seemed to give La Rochelle a prayer. This was a French team playing a final in France but still almighty Leinster were set to destroy them apparently.

And of course it didn't turn out that way. After a bright start again Leinster got bogged down at the breakdown and they weren't able to get their gameplan going at all. What's more, the brilliant handling skills disappeared as they made mistake after mistake. La Rochelle's discipline kept Leinster in it and they were leading with less than ninety seconds to go, but in that last fifteen minutes defeat felt inevitable. Even with an extra man, Leinster just stopped playing and were desperate to try to see the game out.

In fairness Leinster have no divine right to win the Cup another time and you could see how much it meant to La Rochelle and their fans to win their first ever major trophy. You also have to commend Ronan O'Gara and Donncha Ryan for coming up with a gameplan to exploit Leinster's weaknesses when everyone was telling them they had no chance. But for Leinster it's a fourth year in a row of bitter regret and wondering if this team is actually capable of winning the big one. It's not going to get any easier either with our old friends Saracens and the South African teams in the competition from next season. They're all big sides who will be quite happy they can bully Leinster the same way as La Rochelle have done in the last couple of seasons.

So once again Leinster have to dust themselves down and try to win their league to salvage something from the season. After finishing top of the table they face eighth placed Glasgow tomorrow afternoon. At one point around the end of January Glasgow were in and around the top of the table. But they lost five of their last six games to tumble down the table. But their coach Danny Wilson has named a squad with seventeen internationals.

Their front row of Jamie Bhatti, George Turner and Zander Fagerson is unchanged from last week as is the massively experienced second row pairing of Rob Harley and Richie Gray. In the only change to the starting team Gregor Brown is named at openside flanker, joining captain Ryan Wilson and number eight Jack Dempsey in the back row. Glasgow's player of the year Rory Darge is a huge loss to injury in this area though.

Fly-half Ross Thompson lines up outside the lively Ali Price in the half-backs and Scottish international pair Sam Johnson and Sione Tuipulotu are named in the centres. Rufus McLean, Josh McKay and Ollie Smith are the back-three.

Leo Cullen has chosen to freshen up his team with seven changes to the starting line-up. In the pack Dan Sheehan starts in place of the injured Ronan Kelleher and Joe McCarthy starts alongside James Ryan who captains the team from the second row. After excelling against Munster Ryan Baird is given another shot at number six and Caelan Doris shifts to number eight. Newly crowned European player of the year Josh van der Flier, one of the few who played well last week, continues at openside flanker.

In the backs Jimmy O'Brien shifts to full back and Jordan Larmour and Rory O'Loughlin come in on the wings. Ciaran Frawley comes in to start at inside centre alongside Garry Ringrose. In the final change Ross Byrne is named at number 10 and he'll be hoping to put a deeply disappointing appearance off the bench last weekend behind him.

Glasgow have had success at the RDS before and they play an entertaining open style which can stretch defences. They'll be hoping that Leinster are still moping about after last week but the changes to the Leinster team should hopefully freshen things up and lead to a comfortable win.

by Jim O'Connor, © 2022-06-03