Stuart Hogg’s last-kick penalty gave Glasgow Warriors a narrow win as they avenged last season’s GUINNESS PRO12 Final defeat to Leinster in their new season’s opening game. First-half tries from Peter Horne, Jonny Gray and Josh Strauss saw the Warriors move into an impressive 19-0 lead. But penalties from Ian Madigan and Jimmy Gopperth moved Leinster closer and tries through Jack McGrath and Tom Denton saw the visitors take the lead before Hogg had the last say. Leinster’s Noel Reid suffered the worst possible start to the season, going down with an injury in the opening minutes of the game, replaced by Madigan. Glasgow’s Mark Bennett had the first opportunity to put points on the board with a long-range kick at goal, but his accuracy was off and the flags stayed down. But the Warriors then took a spectacular lead through a Horne try, with Tommy Seymour keeping the play alive with a clever offload when it looked like he would be bundled into touch. Gray then added a second after 25 minutes after a hard fought battle inside the Leinster five-metre line, with the second row eventually burrowing over. And the tries kept on coming, with Strauss – captaining the side in Alastair Kellock’s absence – streaking away to dot down under the posts to give the Warriors a 19-0 lead. Madigan got Leinster on the board with a routine penalty before Glasgow nearly scored their fourth try of the night. Henry Pyrgos gallivanted away but the move broke down and Nigel Owens brought it back for a penalty to Glasgow which was not converted and Warriors went into the break 19-3 up. Stuart Hogg emerged from the bench in the second half and slotted in at fly-half, but his opposite number Gopperth’s penalty brought the deficit to 13. Glasgow’s replacement scrum-half Niko Matawalu had a rush of blood to the head in the final ten minutes as he was penalised for flailing his forearm in the direction of a Leinster player. The visitors went for touch and the move paid off as McGrath went over for the try to get Leinster back into the game, with Jimmy Gopperth finding his kicking boots to add the conversion. And just minutes later Leinster found themselves in the lead as Denton scored his side’s second try of the game; Gopperth converting again to move his side 20-19 ahead. But Glasgow recovered their composure to drive down the field in the dying minutes. Owens awarded a penalty to the Warriors five metres out which Matawalu threatened to take quickly. But the Fijian was soon brought to his senses by his teammates, allowing Hogg to kick over the winning penalty as time expired. Follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12
