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Relief: Healy and D'Arcy expected to be fit for Twickenham

A week out from the Heineken Cup final Leinster came out battered and bruised victors of their Pro12 semi-final against Glasgow.

LEINSTER COACH JOE Schmidt was pleased that a considerable injury list proved less serious than first feared after a punishing encounter at the RDS.

The cost of success looked like it was about to sting Schmidt after his side advanced to the Pro12 final at the expense of Glasgow Warriors.

The result will mean Leinster will enjoy home advantage in the final as they face the Ospreys in a repeat of the 2010 final.

Before that, however, they have the much more important matter of a Heineken Cup final and a tough game initially looked to inflict a list of injury concerns upon the reigning champions.

Gordon D’Arcy (eye) Eoin O’Malley (knee) and Cian Healy (ankle) all left the field injured. However, Schmidt feels that O’Malley, at this point, is the only truly serious concern.

“Eoin doesn’t look too good to be honest. He’s had a pretty rough knock on the knee so he’s going off to get scanned – I think Cian’s ok, he was walking fine by the time he got to the sideline so it was as much precautionary as anything. He might have a little bit of inflammation around the ankle, but that’s it.”

Another precautionary withdrawal was D’Arcy, his nasty looking cut on the eye was not as bad as the amount of fluid suggested, merely a fragile point around the brow where D’Arcy has been cut and stitched many times before.

“I’d say after 12 years of rugby it’s stitching on top of stitching,” joked Schmidt, “it’s just a case of the eye closing over a little bit and depth perception becomes a little bit blurred so we just thought we were better off to look after him for next week.”

D’Arcy should line up alongside Brian O’Driscoll in next week’s showpiece. The Ireland captain was left out injured of this fixture, but Schmidt is confident that both he and Rob Kearney will be in the starting line-up against Ulster.

A tightly fought contest, Leinster were made work for every inch of ground, but eventually rode out to a 19-3 lead before conceding two late tries to the visitors. That easing off the pedal was a source of frustration for the Kiwi:

“I was delighted with the endeavour and effort, we defended really well fro 70 minutes until we got enough of a buffer, I think we relaxed a little bit once we knew we had the game – we’re pretty disappointed with that. That’s not something we would be known for, I don’t think.”

Sean Lineen, presiding over his final game in charge of the Firhill outfit cut a deflated figure after the game. His side had given everything to the cause, but came up short against a superior outfit.

“I’m pretty proud of the Glasgow team, they never gave up. The defensive effort on the line with 14 men was outstanding. But you can’t keep soaking up the tackles and it has taken its toll in the end.

“We take some consolation in the fact that the lads never gave up and came back and scored a couple, but too little too late, we’re out.”

As it happened: Leinster v Glasgow, Pro12 semi-final