Leinster draw level at the death
Isa Nacewa kicked a late penalty to salvage a tense 10-10 draw for Pro12 leaders Leinster against a determined Glasgow Warriors outfit.
Lock Tom Ryder turned in a man-of-the-match display but it was not quite enough to see Warriors claim a Pro12 double over Leinster.
In September Glasgow inflicted a first regular-season defeat on Leinster at the RDS in nearly two calendar years but fell just short of repeating the trick on Saturday night.
Since that defeat on home soil Leinster had won 17 of their 18 clashes but with Glasgow’s record of one loss in their last 11 league games it never looked like being anything other than a close affair.
Nacewa had earlier been the villain of the piece when he gave away, and was sin-binned for, the penalty try that, along with an earlier Ruaridh Jackson penalty put Glasgow 10-3 to the good.
But a Heinke van der Merwe try, converted by Ian Madigan set the scene for Nacewa to gain almost immediate redemption with his late penalty.
With conditions making running rugby a virtual no-no at Firhill the visitors might have taken the lead as early as the eighth minute but Madigan’s penalty attempt went begging.
And after both teams tested the patience of the officials the fans were made to wait until the half-hour mark to see the first points of the game.
It was the home side who bagged them when Scotland flyhalf Jackson found his range from out on the right – making it 3-0.
The cagey affair continued with Leinster flyhalf Madigan missing with his second effort at goal from the half-way mark with six minutes of the half remaining.
And three minutes later it was Nacewa who was the guilty party for the Irish province. The Kiwi-born fullback saw his effort dip agonisingly under the cross bar as the home side took a narrow lead into the break.
The Warriors got the score they so coveted five minutes into the second half when they were awarded a penalty try after 46 minutes.
24-year-old hooker Pat MacArthur looked to have touched down in the corner after the Warriors had broken free following a line-out.
In trying to stop the Warriors hooker, Nacewa used a shoulder leaving the television match official able to avoid the tricky looking decision of whether MacArthur was in touch by avoiding the penalty score instead.
With Nacewa sin-binned for his offence and Jackson easily slotting the conversion from under the posts it was 10-0 to the home side.
However their ten point advantage was shortlived as just seven minutes later a multi-phase battering of the Warriors try-line resulted in a score for 14-man Leinster through van der Merwe.
The former South African prop bundled over from close range leaving Madigan an easy conversion to open his account for the night and set up an intriguing last quarter.
And Leinster were able level on 71 minutes when Nacewa made amends for his sin-binning with the penalty that proved to be the last score of the game.
The scorers:
For Glasgow:
Try: Penalty try
Con: Jackson
Pen: Jackson
For Leinster:
Try: van der Merwe
Con: Madigan
Pen: Nacewa
Yellow card: Nacewa (Leinster – 46th min)
Glasgow: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 David Lemi, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Troy Nathan, 11 Colin Shaw, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Rob Harley (captain), 5 Tom Ryder, 4 Nick Campbell, 3 Mike Cusack, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Jon Welsh, 18 Gordon Reid, 19 Rob Verbakel, 20 Calum Forrester, 21 Scott Wight, 22 Federico Aramburu, 23 Tommy Seymour.
Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 David Kearney, 13 Brendan Macken, 12 Colm O’Shea, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Leo Auva’a, 7 Shane Jennings (captain), 6 Dominic Ryan, 5 Mark Flanagan, 4 Damian Browne, 3 Nathan White, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Aaron Dundon, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 John Cooney, 22 Eoin O’Malley, 23 Andrew Conway.
Referee: John Lacey
Assistant Referees: Andrew McMenemy, Graeme Marshall
TMO: Jim Yuille
