The Scotsman reports

And so the dream died. Glasgow’s season was extinguished yesterday by a ruthlessly efficient Leinster side. Yet, if the match was characterised by a series of fascinating little duels, none was more intriguing than one between two Glasgow players.


It’s perhaps fitting that the latest instalment of the selection battle between Duncan Weir and his Glasgow understudy Ruaridh Jackson took place in Ireland, once home to the great debate about the merits of Ollie Campbell, the metronomic kicker who fans respected rather than loved, and Tony Ward, the mercurial running stand-off the fans adored.

Weir and Jackson have been reprising that debate for Glasgow and will, in the longer term, do so for Scotland. For Campbell read Weir, the chunky little Cambuslang lad with a siege-gun boot, and for Ward read Jackson, the Aberdonian who seems to find space at every turn. Watching yesterday were new Scotland backs coach Scott Johnson and national coach Andy Robinson, who sees Jackson as his first choice stand-off. The problem is that outgoing Glasgow coach Sean Lineen routinely chooses Weir over Jackson when it comes to the big games. Just why Lineen likes Weir so much was demonstrated within two minutes of kick-off when Jamie Heaslip exploded straight off the back of a breakdown and picked out the stand-off. Yet instead of blasting through the little Glaswegian, who stands 5ft 8in and just over 14 stones, the stocky little No.10 knocked him off his feet. A few minutes later Weir was further making the point when he knocked over a long-range penalty to bring Glasgow level at 3-3.

The visiting side have a swarming rush defence which is ferociously effective and which, along with their solid set-piece, was at the heart of their challenge last night. Weir fits into that model perfectly.

With less than a third of possession, yesterday was exactly the sort of game he is built for, his huge, raking clearance kicks coming in as handy as some big hits as Glasgow sought to relieve the almost incessant pressure from a Leinster side who spent virtually the whole game in the front foot.

He also distributed crisply, popping passes into Alex Dunbar one minute and throwing a looping miss-pass to speed merchant DTH Van der Merwe on the wing. Yet on one of the very few occasions when Glasgow worked their way into the red zone in the final seconds before the break, it was Weir who twice coughed up the ball. Lineen’s face in the stand was a picture, and that picture was The Scream.

It was no surprise when, with 25 minutes remaining, Lineen replaced Weir with Jackson. Glasgow needed as sharp an attacking edge as possible, and at times Jackson looked like providing it. Yet while he never shirks his defensive duties, with little more than ten minutes remaining he illustrated why he generally starts these big games on the bench when Sean O’Brien simply ran through him, launching the move which ended with the try that broke the back of Glasgow’s challenge. Even Jackson’s lovely little grubber kick for the second Glasgow try wasn’t enough to atone for that missed tackle.

Ultimately, Glasgow were so outclassed up front that the contribution of both men was never likely to prove decisive, but up in the stand Andy Robinson and his new sidekick would have been given plenty of food for thought.

This article was posted on 14-May-2012, 05:56 by Hugh Barrow.