Leinster vs Glasgow Warriors Preview – Leo Cullen delivers rallying call

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is rallying the troops and calling out to all fans to come down to the Aviva this Saturday when Leinster take on current champions Glasgow Warriors in the URC Semi-final.

Last week’s low turnout of 12,879 was a combination of ongoing engineering work on Dublin’s Dart line resulting in there being no service between Connolly and Dun Laoghaire along with the fixture falling on a busy bank holiday weekend with other sports to contend with, this week there is the expectation for more Leinster and Glasgow supporters in attendance.

Raining champions Glasgow are no strangers to getting the win on the road, as proved last year when they overcame a determined Munster at Thomond Park before travelling to one of the hardest fixtures of the tournament, facing the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, which is situated at 1350 meters above sea level.

The Warriors are facing some ongoing injuries before facing Leinster, with forwards Jack Dempsey and Zander Fargerson both ruled out of Saturday’s fixture, along with Matt Fargerson progressing but unlikely to recover in time.

Glasgow are hopeful for the return of Huw Jones at centre, who is “on track” to make an appearance at the Aviva and the return of Sione Tuipulotu cannot be understated.

Leinster’s own injury update revealed that Jordan Larmour has returned to full training after successfully recovering from injury and is available for selection this weekend; however, British & Irish Lions Josh van de Flier and Garry Ringrose remain doubtful for Saturday and will be further assessed before Saturday’s semi-final.

Previous Meetings

These two sides have already met twice this season, with Leinster coming out on top both times with very different scorelines of 52 – 0 in the Champions Cup and 13 – 5 in the URC.

The Champions Cup cricket score doesn’t necessarily reflect where the two teams are currently in terms of accurate gameplay and injuries, with Glasgow putting in an impressive performance against the Stormers and Leinster outscoring the Scarlets by twelve points in a rather uncharacteristic display last week.

However, Saturday’s game has all the hallmarks of a top-of-the-table battle between two heavyweights.

With Leinster’s Champions Cup exit firmly in the past, Leo Cullen believes his side has what it takes to get the job done on the day.

“We need to be relishing the opportunity of playing in front of our home fans. This time last year we were scrambling around the changing rooms trying to find flights to South Africa.

“On Saturday, please turn out in force! We would love to see you here, the players feed off that energy. It’s great to be in a semi-final again but we take nothing for granted.”

By Chris Collyer