In a season head coach Franco Smith says has “had more positive days than negatives ones”, it was a shame Glasgow Warriors’ campaign ended on a big downer in the most familiar setting for such disappointments – the Aviva Stadium.
The home of Irish rugby has been a graveyard for Scottish sides. None – not Glasgow or Edinburgh, not Scotland – has ever won in the Aviva, and Warriors never looked remotely capable of ending that desperate run as Leinster ripped the URC title from their grasp.
The frustration is Glasgow did so little in the semi-final to stop them. Aside from George Horne’s early try and a quickfire double from Jamie Dobie and Sione Tuipulotu when the match had long ended as a contest, Warriors were dominated in every facet of the game.
All the battles – possession, territorial, tactical, aerial, discipline, contact – were bossed by the men in blue.
“Going in half-time 25-5 down meant we would have to be extraordinary in the second part of the game. It’s a little bit of an uphill battle then,” Smith told BBC Scotland after the match.
“They didn’t allow us to play, I thought their defence was excellent. [Leinster senior coach] Jacques Nienaber is doing a great job. He’s a twice World Cup winner with that type of defence that they’ve used.
“They were on top of it today, they’ve limited teams the whole season from scoring points against them, and no difference today.
“I think once they smelled blood in the second part of the game, it was always going to be hard to cancel that deficit.”
It was like groundhog day in Dublin. Leinster walloped Glasgow 52-0 in the Champions Cup quarter-final back in April and while the deficit on the scoreboard may not have been as wide on this occasion, everything else pointed to two sides operating on different planes.
In an injury-plagued campaign, reaching the last four has been a credible defence of their URC crown. The only regret is Glasgow did not have one last fight in them.
Some made a case before the game that Leinster may choke under the pressure while still struggling to come to terms with the Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton that prompted such soul-searching. Glasgow never put themselves in a position to test Leinster’s nerve.
Smith was emotional post-match, no doubt stung by the nature of the loss and drained after another long and demanding season away from his family.
There has been much speculation as to whether the South African wants to fulfil the final year of his contract at Scotstoun. He left more than a few breadcrumbs back in February when he left the door open to an approach from Wales to replace Warren Gatland. That vacancy has yet to be permanently filled.
Some were campaigning for Smith to step up and replace Gregor Townsend as Scotland coach after another underwhelming Six Nations. Townsend names his squad for the summer Tests on Tuesday – he’s going nowhere.
Having publicly expressed his frustration with the departure of key players this summer such as Henco Venter, Tom Jordan and Sebastian Cancelliere amid the SRU’s drive to promote young Scottish talent, it would be understandable if Smith now felt he had taken Glasgow as far as he can.
When asked directly by BBC Scotland whether he would still be at Scotstoun next season, the head coach offered no guarantees.
“I’m looking forward to reflect a little bit,” he said.
“I think it’s 44 weeks we’ve been at it, there’s only 52 weeks in the year, so it’s a full year’s work.
“If you defend the title you have to be on top of your game in all of it, so it will be important for me now to go and reflect a little bit, and take a bit of downtime, and hopefully see what’s going to come next.”
