We weren't good enough, admits Warriors coach Franco after reigning champions are blown away by Leinster

Daily Mail​

07-06-2025

Leinster 37 Glasgow 19
GLASGOW WARRIORS boss Franco Smith admitted his team were nowhere near good enough after they were blown away by Leinster in the URC semi-finals.
Leinster ran in six tries in a dominant performance to bring Glasgow's reign as champions to a brutal end in Dublin.
The Irish side scored 30 unanswered points at one stage to race clear as the Warriors sank without a trace at the Aviva.
In particular, Smith was left to rue a slow start which had seen his team chasing the game and, ultimately, making too many unforced errors.
'Ultimately, we weren't good enough on the day, especially in the first half,' admitted the Glasgow head coach. 'I felt we should have started the game much better.
'It was a huge performance from Leinster. They started so quickly and we were chasing things from there, which is so hard. That just led to more errors from our side.
'They did a job on us in the first 20 or 25 minutes, where we had to make about 100 tackles. Leinster are a quality outfit, but we could have been better.
'They kept the error and penalty count down while we didn't. They put us on the back foot and it was an uphill battle from there.'
Smith had started the match with two fly-halves on the pitch, as Adam Hastings started at 10 and Tom Jordan at 12 in an effort to match Leinster's kicking game.
But it didn't work. Glasgow lost the aerial battle and Hastings was taken off at half-time, as Leinster dominated.
Insisting that it was not the wrong approach, Smith said: 'I don't think the strategy was wrong. I think that's the right way to play against Leinster. We just didn't compete well enough in the aerial battle.'
Despite the heavy defeat, Smith insisted he was proud of the efforts from his players in a title defence which fell short at the semi-final stage.
'I am really proud of our boys for our title defence this season,' he added. 'We must see it in context. We've had a lot of guys injured and not available for selection. You have to look at the big picture.
'We had to be extraordinarily good and they would have had to be average at least and that didn't happen.'
Meanwhile, Leinster forward Ryan Baird, who was named man of the match, said: 'We want to win this tournament. Simple as that. We needed to turn up, no excuses and we did that.
'Glasgow are a great team full of Lions players and we never took them for granted. We were physical and energetic which is just as pleasing as the scores we got.'