Glasgow Warriors avenged their PRO12 final heartache with a hard-fought 22-20 victory over reigning champions Leinster, in an evening of high drama at Scotstoun on Saturday.
Matt O'Connor's men roared to a 34-12 win on home soil at the RDS Arena in May as they claimed back-to-back PRO12 titles, but they struggled to make a case for the defence of the trophy in their season curtain-raiser.
Ian Madigan, who replaced the injured Noel Reid early on, kicked a penalty to get Leinster on the board but they were a little fortunate to get to half-time only 19-3 behind.
Despite Jimmy Gopperth kicking an early second half penalty, the roaring fight-back from Leinster didn’t materialise until very, very late.
On 72 minutes, substitute Jack McGrath touched down from the back of a powerful maul and moments later, Tom Denton was given a gift wrapped try after a Glasgow line-out malfunctioned 5 metres from their own line.
Leinster tried to see out the game, but Glasgow were hunting for that winning score. It looked like they had lost their chance after they elected to kick to touch rather than take on a difficult penalty but after Leinster went offside from an ensuing drop goal attempt, Stuart Hogg made no mistake from right in front to give the home side the win.