Like most ancient cities, Dublin is a haven for seekers of the paranormal. The place is dripping with supernatural lore, from the legends of the Brazen Head pub to the spectres who allegedly inhabit Trinity College or wander Malahide Castle, and the dark history of Kilmainham Gaol.
If you’re a Scot, though, the ghosts you’d be most wary of haunt the well-heeled streets of Dublin 4, where the slopes and swells of the Aviva roof stand proud on the skyline and so many of your nation’s best have been vanquished.
No Scottish side, club or national, has won here since the stadium was opened in 2010. The last Scotland men’s team to beat Ireland, in Ireland, did so at Croke Park that same year. Edinburgh have not prevailed in Leinster’s back yard for two full decades, in front of 1700 souls at Donnybrook. Dave Rennie steered Glasgow to a gripping RDS victory in 2019, but in the eight years before and six since, the Warriors have failed to notch another triumph in the Irish capital.

As Glasgow head to Dublin for the third time this season, these stats are bleak. No Warrior needs reminded about the ghosts of beatings past. A certain Cranberries song springs to mind.
The mood music around Glasgow heading into the final furlongs of this URC campaign has not been wholly upbeat. Stuttering form, the departure of cherished players and rumours swirling around the future of Franco Smith, the coach who drove them to impossible heights 12 months ago. There was an unconvincing win in Parma, a dispiriting home loss to the Bulls and a pasting in Treviso.
And then there are those Dublin ghouls.
Glasgow crossed the Irish Sea in the URC quarter-finals of 2022 and were dispatched reeling from their most heinous defeat of modern times. The 76-14 capitulation cost Danny Wilson his job; a performance so bereft it was deemed a sackable offence by his paymasters. Home truths were the order of the summer in the pre-season which followed.
It wasn’t quite a ‘come-and-get-me’ number but it was lightyears from the stoic conciseness which would earn Smith a fair packet at the poker table.
Weirdly, Glasgow’s 52-0 thrashing in the Champions Cup just two months ago felt less wounding, what with the layers and the personnel Leinster have added since 2022 and the front-liners Glasgow were missing. Still, it’s a gut-churning reminder of what they’re up against here. Smith called Leinster the best club team he’d ever faced in the aftermath. Better, he said, than the Irish national side. His comments were tinged even with a touch of resignation.
“I think it’s the first time we have been completely bullied in every aspect of the game,” the South African said.
Smith’s situation is intriguing. Those used to his polite straight-batting nearly fell off their chairs when he gave a revealing answer about the Wales job back in March. It wasn’t quite a ‘come-and-get-me’ number but it was lightyears from the stoic conciseness which would earn Smith a fair packet at the poker table. He’d been linked heavily with Leicester Tigers too and more suitors will eye his impressive CV. Heading into the final year of his contract, this proud son of the Free State might soon feel he’s done all he can here.
Mind you, that Wales chatter still isn’t going away. Scottish Rugby must be loath to lose him and where the national job is concerned, they might at some point be forced to choose between sticking with Gregor Townsend and offering Smith the top gig.
You needn’t be telepathic to get the sense Smith is frustrated by the union’s seemingly vigorous focus on Scottish-qualified signings. The debate around overseas recruitment is complex and has raged here forever. The optics now suggest David Nucifora, Scotland’s new performance director, has put a premium on ‘SQ’ talent.

Little wonder in a two-pro-team system which has failed to adequately prepare its youngsters for age-grade rugby, never mind deliver URC-ready prospects in sufficient numbers, or at a sufficient rate. The big-picture prioritising of SQ players is absolutely right.
Yet while too many incomers might clog the pathway, high-value recruits can bring priceless qualities off the pitch as well class and success on it. In aiming to strengthen for the future, Nucifora might be willing to accept weakening his clubs in the present. What’s best for Scottish rugby mightn’t immediately be best for Edinburgh and Glasgow. This is just one of the broad issues with which Nucifora now grapples.
Smith bristled when journalists queried the signing of Henco Venter two years ago. The press pack weren’t alone in harbouring some reservations. Then 31, Venter was a squad player at the Sharks and had little reputation beyond South Africa. Why hire a journeyman flanker when the Scottish backrow is an area of such traditional strength? When Venter, who is leaving for Brive, played his last match at Scotstoun on Friday night, they were practically mopping up tears as he trooped off to a rousing ovation from the main stand. He’s been a trojan and a standard-setter.
The details of his departure are murky. Venter, speaking in the press this week, is adamant he wanted to stay. Smith wanted to keep him. Scottish Rugby rejects the notion Venter is a victim of any explicit SQ policy, contending Brive put a juicy offer on the table before they’d had the chance to offer him a new contract. They had to nail down their top-tier talent – particularly Sione Tuipulotu – before negotiating with Venter, who is now 33, and others like him.
The brutal truth, though, is any Scottish side to ever amount to anything did not subsist on SQ players alone.
This has been an unsightly and, for the union, unhelpful sideshow to the semi-final. But speak to anyone at the Irish provinces during Nucifora’s prolifically successful, and equally eventful, reign at the IRFU, and they’ll tell you this is often his way. Rampant criticism never seemed to faze him.
The brutal truth, though, is any Scottish side to ever amount to anything did not subsist on SQ players alone. A smattering of stardust, nous and excellence from other nations and different environments has always supplemented the local core.
You need only look at last year’s URC winners, who concocted the perfect blend with Sebastian Cancelliere, another leaver Glasgow would rather have re-signed, Josh McKay and Venter in their ranks.
Go back a decade to Scotland’s only previous champions, the Warriors of 2015, and images of a swaggering Leone Nakarawa are instantly conjured, plus the exuberance of Niko Matawalu, the ballast of Josh Strauss, who became a Scotland player on residency, and the deadly finishing of DTH van der Merwe. The Canadian and his wife, Gillian, lived a stone’s throw from Scotstoun and were cultural pillars of the Warriors community.

Cornell du Preez, Phil Burleigh and Mike Coman were central members of the Edinburgh team to make the Challenge Cup final the same year Glasgow won the Pro12. Du Preez and Burleigh, too, went on to wear the thistle. The capital squad who whacked Toulouse en route to an incredible Heineken Cup semi in 2012 had Netani Talei, another Fijian, Tim Visser, not yet Scottish qualified, and uncompromising English lock Sean Cox among its protagonists.
Of the ten signings announced by Edinburgh and Glasgow for next season, only Piers O’Conor, the former Bristol and Connacht back, is not SQ. The majority are callow prospects or players who have seen limited top end game time. There’s excitement around their potential, but if these men didn’t have some Scottish ancestry, would they really be on the radar at all?
Nucifora isn’t banning non-SQ recruits, but there will have to be a seriously compelling case to bring them in. And there’s a more pragmatic side to this too. Budgets are a factor. Players become more expensive by the year as their salaries rise. Where academy options are bountiful, a non-Scot or a veteran might be moved on. Freddie Douglas, for instance, will see more action for Edinburgh next season which might cut Hamish Watson’s minutes, brilliant as the Lion has been of late. Tom Currie and Liam McConnell need to play too. Some fantastic young players are not getting the same elite-level opportunities as their counterparts in other countries. Edinburgh, noticeably, are in the process of gradually reducing the overall age of their squad.
If the club were bloated with foreign players stifling opportunities for young Scots, then fair enough. On the contrary, Smith’s record in nurturing youth is phenomenal.
All this, however, does feel harsh on Glasgow. If the club were bloated with foreign players stifling opportunities for young Scots, then fair enough. On the contrary, Smith’s record in nurturing youth is phenomenal. Euan Ferrie, Max Williamson, Ben Afshar, Alex Samuel, Gregor Hiddleston, Jare Oguntibeju, Gregor Brown and Angus Fraser have all become regulars on the Afrikaner’s watch. Some have made their Test debuts; others played in URC and Champions Cup knockouts. Smith must feel he has earned the right to retain his trusted pros.
As if to underline that point, and to sound a note of encouragement ahead of Saturday’s Aviva shootout, Glasgow’s last visit to Dublin was a monumental improvement. This was a team featuring 22-year-old rookie Macenzzie Duncan and Seb Stephen, a 19-year-old hooker on his professional debut. The starting pack had an average age under 24. Glasgow fronted up in a massive way and only went down 13-5.
They’ll be better again this weekend. Tuipulotu is fit and motoring again. The returning Lion did a demolition job on the Stormers backline, showing injury has done nothing to dent his form. Tom Jordan played with devastating venom as he prepares to leave for Bristol. Rory Darge continues to excel, perhaps eyeing a late call-up to the Lions squad.
Huw Jones is expected to be back from a niggling Achilles issue. Zander Fagerson won’t make it, though, a colossal blow to the Warriors at scrum time and in the close-quarter skirmishes. The set-piece remains a concern, particularly when Jacques Nienaber uncages his buffalo from the bench.

Leinster have shown hints of vulnerability since Northampton Saints outgunned them magnificently in the Champions Cup semis. It’s as if that staggering match fractured their collective psyche. Sense-scrambling pressure is upon them now, as their trophy drought stretches on and the quest for a fifth star eludes them.
“The players don’t seem to be playing with any real anger,” said Bernard Jackman, the former Ireland hooker, elite coach and one of the game’s foremost analysts on the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast this week.
“In actual fact, it looks like their confidence is gone. It’s amazing what a defeat can do to you.”
It’s a fascinating dynamic. This is, beyond doubt, one of the greatest club teams ever assembled yet its trophy cabinet sits empty. By contrast, while Glasgow will be a different beast this time around, they could still wind up on the wrong end of a hosing. The history and the pedigree and the sheer need for Leinster to win this tournament are weighted against them.
The Warriors will need all their heavy hitters firing. They have a title to defend, a giant to slay and ghosts to banish.
Apparently nay
I certainly hope so!