Brennan storms on and puts Leinster on the right road

Leinster got there in the end against Glasgow Caledonians, even finishing with an outrageous flourish to take their pool try tally from four to 10, but amid the cheers there was collective relief among the Donnybrook crowd of approximately 4,000.

At times divine and inspirational, at other times ragged, this was a right old curate's egg of a match; Leinster flying into a 20-0 lead against the breeze, then seeing it whittled down to 20-17 after Tommy Hayes landed a touchline conversion to Gordon Simpson's try which brought back memories of Leinster's capitulation against Llanelli last season.

Perhaps that was buried in their subconsciousness, but whatever the reason there was a palpable sense of panic. Whereupon, cometh the hour cometh the Barnhall man: Trevor Brennan.

As Mike Ruddock said afterwards, Leinster needed someone to do something special at that juncture and with months of enthusiasm bottled up, Brennan did what he does best. Chasing down Emmet Farrell's restart way in front of his fellow forwards, Brennan bear-hugged Ian Jardine to the ground, whipping him round and earning a penalty for not releasing.

Emmet Farrell landed the short-range penalty after a couple of unnerving post-interval misses. Leinster and Farrell steadied down, Brian O'Driscoll was gradually released and Leinster finished with a flourish of three tries in the last 10 minutes.

The result leaves them temporarily in pole position of a pool still without an away win. Arguably Leinster's most favourable result from Stade Francais today is a Leicester win, thereby making it a straight winner-takes-all at Welford Road next Saturday. Alternatively, Stade victories today and next Friday night in Glasgow would ensure the Parisians of first place because of the aggregate results between Stade and Leinster.

Whatever the outcome, Leinster can extract encouragement aplenty from a much improved campaign. The identification of a quick-passing half-back combination with an out-half, Farrell, who plays it on the gain line, has finally helped them play to their talents.

Every time Leinster struck stealthily; scoring with each of their first four sniffs of the Glasgow line. Having mauled back Tommy Hayes' kick-off, Bob Casey made some hard yards either side of a trademark pickup and charge from O'Brien after Farrell's half-break to earn a penalty which Farrell squeezed over from nearly 40 metres.

Leinster withstood a line-out and two scrums on their line before Hayes's loose miss pass lifted the siege. From O'Brien's take off Shane Byrne's accurate throwing, Stu Forster's lovely long pass invited Horgan onto the ball.

Horgan initiated another huge game by spinning out of the first tackle and galloping onward, Victor Costello supporting before Casey timed his run onto Forster's popped pass. With everyone fanning out on the blind side, Gary Halpin cleverly spun to the open side to score under the posts.

The first-half penalty count (11-2), like the possession and territorial graphs, continued to go against Leinster, forcing the blues to live off turnovers - but there were plenty of them and two more yielded further tries.

First John McWeeney nailed Shaun Longstaff outside the Leinster 22 for Peter McKenna to chase his half-volley up the line, before hacking on and then astutely gathering before diving for glory. Almost immediately McWeeney latched onto Jardine's loose pass to Glenn Metcalfe 30 metres out, hacking on and gathering a favourable bounce to score.

Finally Hayes opened Glasgow's account and then converted a try by Metcalfe.

Cue panic stations. Errors mounted amid the high stakes, Hayes missing from in front of the posts, before quick recycling gave Glasgow a big overlap for Simpson to touch down.

Enter Brennan and Farrell's penalty, after which a superb angled run by O'Driscoll onto Farrell's short pass lifted Leinster. Horgan set up another midfield target and Farrell's blind side chip earned a five metre scrum; Costello rumbling before Farrell ran hard onto Forster's pass off the ruck to score himself.

Farrell's deftly-executed dummy miss-pass to Horgan and another O'Driscoll run saw the classy centre score under the posts, and Dennis Hickie did likewise.

Scoring sequence: 3 mins Farrell pen 3-0; 15 mins Halpin try, Farrell con 10-0; 19 mins McKenna try 15-0; 23 mins McWeeney try 20-0; 36 mins Hayes pen 20-3; 40 mins Metcvalfe try, Hayes con 20-10; 58 mins Simpson try, Hayes con 20-17; 61 mins Farrell pen 23-17; 72 mins Farrell try and con 30-17; 77 mins O'Driscoll try, Farrell con 37-17; 84 mins Hickie try, Farrell con 44-17.

LEINSTER: P McKenna; D Hickie, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, J McWeeney; E Farrell, S Forster; R Corrigan, S Byrne, G Halpin, R Casey, M O'Kelly, D O'Brien, V Costello, L Toland (capt). Replacements: T Brennan for O'Brien (60 mins), P Smyth for Byrne (69 mins), P Coyle for Halpin (75 mins), G Fulcher for Casey (76 mins), M McHugh (79 mins).

GLASGOW CALEDONIANS: G Metcalfe; S Longstaff, J Stuart, I Jardine, A Bulloch; T Hayes, A Nicol (capt); D Hilton, G Bulloch, G McIlwham, S Campbell, J White, G Simpson, R Reid, D McFadyen. Replacements: J Petrie for Reid (73 mins).

Referee: Didier Mene (France).

Before the game there was a minute's silence for Vinny Murray, the former Clongowes, Leinster and Irish schoolboys coach who passed away over Christmas.