Second-row Tom Ryder turned in a man-of-the-match display but it was not quite enough to see Glasgow Warriors claim a RaboDirect PRO12 double over Leinster, as they drew 10-10. In September Glasgow inflicted a first regular-season defeat on Leinster at the RDS in nearly two calendar years but Ryder and co. 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. And it turned out to be just that with the RaboDirect PRO12 leaders needing a late Isa Nacewa penalty to secure themselves a share of the points. 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 fly-half Jackson found his range from out on the right – making it 3-0. The cagey affair continued with Leinster fly-half 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 full-back 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.
