A near full strength Glasgow Warriors comfortably beat an inexperienced Leinster side 43-25 at Scotstoun to secure their first domestic win over the Irish province since 2019. 

Leinster, who finished top of the URC regular season in the last campaign, were without a large portion of their Ireland contingent and played their first game following the retirement of legendary fly-half Johnny Sexton. 

Glasgow Warriors, with seven players returning from the Rugby World Cup, made a good start with skilful play from the backs getting their hands free in the tackles. 

The home side were knocking on the door for the game’s opening try but a strong hit by former All Black Charlie Ngatai overturned possession. 

But it was one of the returning Scotland internationals, Rory Darge, that broke through tackles with a bulldozing carry and offloaded to Josh McKay, who raced under the sticks. 

Leinster hit back with a Harry Byrne penalty almost immediately from the kick off and despite having very little possession and territory inside the opposing quarter they cut the deficit to four points.

The lively Ngatai’s strong carry resulted in Darge going in at the side, allowing Byrne knocking over a second penalty.

However, Sebastian Cancelliere raced away to score in the corner by walking the tightrope of the whitewash after an exquisite offload by Fraser Brown. 

Jack Boyle, making his first Leinster start, barged his way over from close range after a number of phases on the Glasgow line to momentarily overturn the deficit. 

That was before Glasgow reestablished their lead after an unbelievable piece of improvisation from Stafford McDowall put Huw Jones away to score. 

Glasgow secured the four-try bonus point on the stroke of half time as hooker Angus Fraser went over off a driving maul to score on his first appearance at Scotstoun. 

There was still time at the end of the first stanza for four minutes of constant Leinster pressure but the likes of Greg Peterson and Fraser saw off the Irish pressure with a phenomenal defensive set.

Leinster made a fast start to the second half with Byrne kicking the visitors to the corner after a breakdown penalty.

That resulted in Lee Barron crossing from a well worked driving maul to bring the deficit to just four points. 

Leinster’s momentum continued to build as Cancelliere was yellow carded for a deliberate knock on. 

However, moments after coming on the loudest cheer of the day occurred as replacement George Horne raced away to score Glasgow’s fifth try.

Leinster pushed hard in the final quarter with repeated entries into the 22 and after Liam Turner had a try disallowed, Sam Prendergast picked out Tommy O’Brien for their four-try bonus point touchdown to setup a grandstand finish.

But any hopes of a comeback were concluded by Johnny Matthews’ late score and Jordan Larmour sent to the sin bin for repeated infringements close to the Glasgow try line. 

Things went from bad to worse for the Irish province as they ended the game with 13, conceding a late penalty try and a yellow card to Brian Deeny for bringing down a maul heading for the line.