Glasgow v Leinster 23/11

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A bit threadbare, missing 2 whole front rows to intl duty, not to mind all the others and the big name injuries (O'Driscoll, R Kearney, Nacewa, Ftizgerald, to name a few) Badly in need of a win.

Glasgow is one of the last places we need to be going. Possibility of Sean O'Brien making a return on the bench is the only good point. They won't want to risk him though if he is not 100%

The teams:

Glasgow: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Peter Horne, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Sean Kennedy, 8 Josh Strauss, 7 Chris Fusaro (c), 6 Rob Harley, 5 Tom Ryder, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Mike Cusack, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Gordon Reid.
Replacements: 16 Finlay Gillies, 17 Ofa Fainga'anuku, 18 Moray Low, 19 James Eddie, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 George Graham, 22 Scott Wight, 23 Byron McGuigan.

LEINSTER:

15: Isa Nacewa
14: Dave Kearney
13: Brendan Macken
12: Andrew Goodman
11: Fionn Carr
10: Ian Madigan
9: Isaac Boss

1: Jack McGrath
2: Aaron Dundon
3: Jamie Hagan
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Quinn Roux
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Shane Jennings
8: Sean O'Brien

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Thomas Sexton
17: Jack O'Connell
18: Martin Moore
19: Devin Toner
20: Jordi Murphy
21: John Cooney
22: Noel Reid
23: Andrew Conway

i think that was one of the worst pro games I have ever put myself through. A brief synopsis would be: Kick off, knock on, scrum, scrum re-set, scrum, scrum re-set, knock on, scrum, penalty, yellow card, kick off.....repeat.

Credit to Leinster for getting the win, could have gone either way - but I think the reasons Glasgow lost were.

1. Hunter getting absolutely mullered in the scrum, cost us field position and possession in the second half. Toonie obviously wanted to put Low on for Cusak later in the game, in hindsight it was the wrong call. Fair play though, he backed his man and when it didn't work he made the difficult decision to take Hunter of.

2. Rhubarb Jackson was woeful. Based on watching him for the past 4-5 years I honestly don't think he has the minerals. His kicking hasn't improved at all - which is impressive in itself considering he must practice nearly every day!In the second half we needed him to step up and put the ball in the corners, instead he tried to play far to much rugby. If we had wee Duncy, we would have won last night - I'm certain.

Great to get the win, had we lost this one I think new would struggle to get up a head of steam before the ASM game. Seasons have hinged on more dreadful wins on the road.

Happy days.

The only positive from that game was a win I didn't expect but it was an awful match.

In the first half I thought we showed phases of play where we looked a bit more like the team of last season but then we'd make a silly knock on or fail to support a player and he'd get turned over.The weather destroyed any chance of things improving in the 2nd half.

One thing I will say is Madigan looks to be learning about the virtues of field position on a day like that.Too often he has tried running everything but he kicked a lot more yesterday,now his kicking wasn't great and he still has a lot of work to do before he's the finished article but the fact that he's working on it is a good sign.

It was good to see O'Brien back anyway, he looked rusty and made some shocking handling errors, but he must have made about 7 turnovers yesterday, and a few good carries. I wonder if he will stay at 6 or 8 as Jennings has been playing very well this season for Leinster.

That's true,I suppose the game wasn't a complete write off.In the second half he made a carry where he burst through a defender and it took 2 cover tacklers to take him down,it sent shivers down my spine as we've badly missed that kind of running with both Ireland and Leinster this year.

Yeah it was great. He really needs to be used more often as a carrying option, he was used far too little last year in that regard. It seemed to be after the Wales game in the world cup actually, he and Ferris just seemed to stop carrying as much. Interesting to say the least.

Oof - glad I didn't watch this but that's an awful loss for Glasgow in the circumstances. The conditions were horrendous but if we're stupid enough to pick up two yellow cards at home and we miss 3-4 pots at goal, then we really didn't deserve to win. Fozzy still has a lot to learn in terms of judgement.

The writing is surely on the wall for Jackson when Weir comes back.

Props to Leinster for getting the job done with the lads available. Glasgow only have themselves to blame, which is sad.

Not just Jackson GC, but Peter Horne and Alex Dunbar as well. The Glasgow midfield was utterly pedestrian, and Murchie offered no attacking threat from the back.

When the internationals are back, I wonder whether we'll see Dunbar switch back to 12, and DTH to 13, with Maitland and Seymour/Lamont on the wings.

Not a good game for those Glasgow fans wanting Jackson, Horne and Dunbar to start. Hopefully just a blip.

On the plus side, the Glasgow pack went pretty well, and Harley is getting back to his best. Also thought Swinson was quietly influential. A real work horse that guy - a real team player.

9. Cusiter
10. Weir
11. Maitland
12. Dunbar
13. DTH
14. Seymour
15. Hogg

The subs could include Niko, Horne, Schlamont and Ramont.

That's not bad at all, FES.

Looking at the team again, we really shouldn't have lost that game.

Let's see how we get on at Thomond Park with everyone back. At the very least we shouldn't be complacent. Delighted to see Moray Low survive his first match in these conditions.

1st time Ive missed a Leinster game in years. Had to. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

But, I'll take the win and especially Isa and SOB coming through it unscathed. Need all the boys back in harness next week v Zebre. Perfect game in which to do so.

Sexton, Strauss, Healy, Heaslip & Co, should come back with their heads well up.

Believe.

GC - Cusiter as a starter? Surely not. He is pedestrian at getting the ball away from rucks and loves getting a pod of forwards to offload to with hee-haw purpose and ,worse still, a pop pass strait to head height. If you want to use a nippy set of backs, you have to start with Pyrgos. Even the young lad, Kennedy, looks to carry more threat than Cusiter

InjuredYetAgain wrote:GC - Cusiter as a starter? Surely not. He is pedestrian at getting the ball away from rucks and loves getting a pod of forwards to offload to with hee-haw purpose and ,worse still, a pop pass strait to head height. If you want to use a nippy set of backs, you have to start with Pyrgos. Even the young lad, Kennedy, looks to carry more threat than Cusiter

I disagree. This ignores the fact that Pyrgos has never genuinely impressed for Glasgow. His game usually consists of box kicks that are either too short or go out on the full. All credit to him, he impressed coming off the bench against the Springboks so he should be starting for Glasgow until Cusiter comes back and then we can see if he's up for keeping is place off Matawalu and Cusiter when he returns. Kennedy has had all of two starts so I think it's a bit early for him to be considered first choice.

One of the worst games I have ever attended. It was an awful game of rugby. I was saying to one of my friends on the way out "That was a bad game but I'm sure I've been to worse". After thinking about it I genuinely can't think of a worse one - and I was at England Italy in 08.

Thought Leinster's 3rd choice front row (O'Connell Sexton Moore) done really well. Moore looks like a nightmare to scrummage against, he's a barrell!

1. Healy
2. Strauss
3. Ross

1. VDM
2. Cronin
3. Bent

1. McGrath
2. Dundon
3. Hagan

1. O'Connell
2. Sexton
3. Moore


4th-choice frontrow Michael?

Gibson/Mick - can we borrow Joe Schmidt for a while please?

You can have him back in 4 years once Scotland has won the world cup.

Yep, dead right Gibbo!

Sorry George, no deal. We're on a mission, from BOD.