Champions Glasgow Warriors paid a hefty price for two yellow cards as their dreadful run of results in Dublin continued last night.
A controversial yellow card to winger Taqele Naiyaravoro was the decisive moment of the night as referee Ian Davies awarded a penalty try which put Leinster ahead for the first time in the game 10 minutes from the end.
Naiyaravoro was penalised for deliberately knocking the ball out with his hand as he chased a ball to the line with Leinster winger Fergus McFadden.
Leinster, despite not having any of their frontline Irish internationals back, did not look back after that as they closed out the win with a third penalty of the night from McFadden.
The return of six internationals from the World Cup was a big boost to Gregor Townsend and while Leinster defended well initially, the pressure finally yielded a try from tighthead Zander Fagerson after 14 minutes when the Scotland Under-20 international squeezed over.
Duncan Weir added the extras but Leinster hit back almost immediately and reduced the gap when McFadden landed a penalty from 35 metres on the right to make it 7-3 before adding a second shortly afterwards.
Glasgow took over from there and Weir extended their lead with a good penalty from 43 metres on the right and made it 13-6 with a penalty from 35 metres on the left.
Glasgow’s hopes of only their third win in the last 11 contests between them suffered a blow just before the break when hooker Pat MacArthur was binned for a reckless tackle on his counterpart Aaron Dundon when he caught him high.
Leinster made the most of their extra man three minutes after the restart when they went to the corner with a penalty.
Glasgow dealt with the initial forays by Leinster but with Ben Te’o instrumental, they found a way through when scrum-half Luke McGrath sneaked over. McFadden added the conversion to tie the game.
But the Glasgow response to the concession of the try was impressive. Once again they displayed great patience and built phase after phase inside the Leinster 22 and in the end got over when former Waratah Naiyaravoro used all his huge frame to burst through three tackles to score.
Weir was unable to add the conversion as Glasgow led 18-13 just as they were about to be restored to 15 men with the return of MacArthur from the bin.
But Naiyaravoro went from hero to villain 15 minutes from time when he was binned for knocking the ball dead with his hand as McFadden chased him to the line and referee Davies had no hesitation in awarding the penalty try.
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