Leinster guarantee all-Irish showdown

History beckons for one of the finest sides to come out of Leinster. As expected, Matt Williams' entertaining team duly ensured an all-Irish final to the inaugural Celtic League at Lansdowne Road next Saturday when, even allowing for Glasgow's exuberance, the outcome was never really in doubt.

A highly skilled and potent start - and with it an early double whammy - left the Scots on the back foot for the remainder of a crisp, dry night and though Glasgow were never completely subdued, only their spirited resistance prevented the winning margin from being more emphatic.

To nitpick - as this highly professional Leinster unit will no doubt do - Leinster will rue and review a few errors, such as some turnovers, a couple of stolen line-outs and a few missed tackles. But given the heavy early season load, the international disruptions and less than smooth preparations, even Leinster will be pretty pleased with this effort.

The scrum went well, the lineout generally ensured some quality attacking platforms and the rucking provided plenty of quick ball. Indeed, unless perfection is achieved, the turnovers are inevitable given Leinster's desire to offload in the tackle and maximise their excellent close-in support play.

Their performance was also illuminated by some high-class individual efforts. Victor Costello set the tone with some barnstorming bursts, while a pumped-up Brian O'Driscoll gave one of his all-action, all-purpose displays. Aside from the try and the support play, he was hitting rucks and making tackles, and a one-handed pick-up at speed on the retreat to clean up a Glasgow footrush under his own pasts was possibly the high point of the match for sheer skill.

As the game went on, Shane Horgan grew increasingly prominent, punching more and more holes, while the Aussie signings again showed their unfussy but priceless worth. Nathan Spooner kicked and picked his options with calm assurance, while Keith Gleeson did his usual at the breakdown, forcing around half a dozen turnovers in contact like no Irish forward can.

It takes a crack team to begin at the high tempo Leinster did. With their first sniff of Glasgow territory seven minutes in, they breezily concocted the game's opening try. From a put-in inside their own half wide on the left, the scrum tweaked perfectly for Costello to make a trademark rumble off the base, with Gleeson in support.

From a good recycle the ball was moved crossfield to Gordon D'Arcy, back infield to Eric Miller, and right to D'Arcy, before, off fifth phase, O'Driscoll's offload inside in a narrow blindside corridor enabled Dempsey to neatly take his seventh try of the competition. Spooner landed a fine conversion.

A similar score followed within six minutes, from a lineout at almost the same point inside the Leinster half, as again Costello burst upfield fully 40 metres from his own catch. From quick ruck ball once more, Spooner made the numbers count with a long cut-out pass to O'Driscoll, who scored with a classic outside break to the corner.

A Tommy Hayes penalty was Glasgow's token response as Leinster made their tackles and the outside three counter-attacked well off Hayes' siege-gun kicks.

Leinster's more sustained dominance of the second quarter yielded a smaller dividend. A brilliant, sustained drive saw Rory Kerr produce a try-saving tackle out wide on Miller.

About the only blemishes were a couple of stolen Leinster throws, though a lineout drive led to a Spooner penalty on the half-hour. Glasgow were holding out grimly and gamely, but the pressure told as Andy Henderson was binned and Spooner landed another penalty.

Still, Leinster were relieved that D'Arcy did enough to prevent Roland Reid scoring from a tight chase to his own chip ahead. Hayes closed out the half by hitting the upright with a 40-metre penalty, leaving it 18-3 at the break.

Hayes atoned straight after the resumption when Leo Cullen played the ball after the tackle, but Leinster responded with a try that was part brilliance, part Keystone Cops.

Repeated drives stretched the Glasgow defence but they were possibly unhinged by Horgan, who fumbled and then juggled O'Meara's pass behind his back 25 metres out as he somehow broke two tackles and regained control of the ball to score under the posts.

Glasgow, as is their wont, kept on knocking and they received their just desserts when Michael Bartlett broke O'Meara's tackle and eluded the despairing tackles of Gleeson and D'Arcy to score.

On the hour, Leinster stemmed any potential Glaswegian comeback when another Horgan burst up the middle from O'Meara's flat pass off quick line-out ball and the centre's offload for O'Driscoll's support run stretched the visitors once more.

Costello's drive was held up, but from the ruck Hickie broke two tackles to score off Spooner's inside pass.

Out of keeping with what had gone before, the final quarter yielded only another Spooner penalty, though then again, given a plethora of replacements and the exhausing nature of the match, it wasn't that surprising.

And while Leinster didn't complete proceedings with a trademark flourish, they had the satisfaction of keeping out a proud late flurry from the Scots.

SCORING SEQUENCE

7th min - Dempsey try, Spooner con 7-0

13th min - O'Driscoll try 12-0

17th min - Hayes penalty 12-3

30th min - Spooner penalty 15-3

39th min - Spooner penalty 18-3

Half-time ... 18-3

42nd min - Hayes penalty 18-6

47th min - Horgan try, Spooner con 25-6

53rd min - Bartlett try, Hayes con 25-13

60th min - Hickie try, Spooner con 32-13

67th min - Spooner penalty 35-13

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; D Hickie, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, G D'Arcy; N Spooner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Wallace, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, E Miller, V Costello, K Gleeson. Replacements: T Brennan for Costello (55-58 mins) and for Miller (65 mins), R Casey for Cullen (61 mins), P Coyle for Wallace (62 mins), P McKenna for Dempsey (65 mins), B Willis for Spooner (75 mins), G Hickie for Byrne (77 mins), A Magro for O'Driscoll (77 mins).

GLASGOW: R Kerr; J Steele, J McLaren, A Henderson, M Bartlett; T Hayes, A Nicol; G McIlwhain, G Bulloch, L Harrison, N Ross, J White, G Simpson, R Reid, G Flockhart. Replacements: B Irving for Kerr (14-22 mins, and 77 mins), E Murray for Harrison (65 m ins), S Griffiths for Ross (65 mins), A Hall for Reid (75 mins), G Beveridge for Nicol (77 mins). Sin-binned: Henderson (38-48 mins)

Referee: N Williams (Wales).

Munster v Ulster

Lansdowne Road (kick-off: 3.0pm)

On television: TG4 and BBC NI

Gerry Thornley's Celtic League semi-final preview on Page 2

Plus: All-Ireland League

Division One previews

Munster's Anthony Horgan and Ulster's Jonathon Bell, who are set to renew acquaintances at Lansdowne Road this afternoon