'Better than Ireland' - Glasgow boss Smith hails dominant Leinster

Dan Sheehan scored the penultimate try as Leinster eased past Glasgow into the Champions Cup semi-finals

Glasgow head coach Franco Smith hailed Leinster as the greatest club team he has ever seen after watching the Irish side end Warriors' Champions Cup hopes in devastating fashion.

The URC champions were completely outgunned as Leinster ran in eight tries in a 52-0 quarter-final victory in Dublin.

It followed a similar 62-0 destruction of Harlequins in the previous round and Smith says Leinster are simply operating on a different level from all their rivals.

And when asked if this Leinster side is better than anything he has witnessed in the club game, Smith told BBC Scotland: "Definitely, hands down.

"I've been coaching since 2007 in the Heineken Cup and hands down, it's by a long shot.

"Not just the fact they have the best players. Most of them have been in the number one seeded team for a long period. They've played more than one World Cup.

"They come back and they play together at the club. You can see that. They've been kept together for a long time.

"A lot of money has been spent. Do they play better than Ireland? Yes, I think so.

"If you replace Bundee Aki with Jordie Barrett and you have the likes of RG Snyman in there and Rabah Slimani, there's some good foreigners that's added value when they are still developing young Irish players.

"I think if you look at Bordeaux and Toulouse, they are also teams that have some big hitters. From a financial perspective, it is tough to compete with that budget."

Smith refused to use Leinster's greater resources, or the absence of a host of key Glasgow players through injury, as an excuse for the heavy defeat.

He says the team, and the club as a whole, must learn lessons from the humbling experience to move forward for the rest of this season and beyond.

"If the club wants to progress and become real contenders for the back end of the European Cup and URC rugby, the players need to understand where to go and how many people must be in our building, how many people must be exposed during the season," said Smith, who confirmed the leg injury suffered by Matt Fagerson at the Aviva Stadium is likely to end his season.

"I think we did a great job in doing that, so with an eye on next season, I think there's a lot of ingredients that's important to be competitive again in both competitions. The players must improve.

"We've learnt a lot of lessons. We now know what it takes. From a squad depth perspective, you need a quality squad to compete in Europe and in the URC."