Glasgow hit out at Magners League officials after defeat to Ospreys

Glasgow lost 20-5 to the Welshmen in Swansea's Liberty Stadium last night to miss out on a final place, and while also critical of the refereeing of George Clancy, coach Sean Lineen insisted he could have no complaints as his team did not play well enough. However, the fact that the game took place at all in Wales infuriated Baillie.

The Ospreys were fined 100,000 and deducted four points for failing to play an earlier league match against Ulster, but because the disciplinary hearing was postponed for three weeks, until Wednesday, due to volcanic ash affecting flights to the original hearing, by which time it was decided that the points deduction had to be held over to next season to avoid affecting the semi-finals. Had it been imposed immediately, the Ospreys would have dropped to third in the league and had to play Glasgow away.

Baillie stated: "Frustrating is an understatement. Home advantage was essential and only when you're here do you fully realise how much of an advantage it is. We had 150 or so supporters here tonight and at times they made more noise than the Ospreys, but what might it have been like with 10,000 at Firhill?

"Those four points had they been imposed two months ago would have meant a home semi-final and I have no doubts that had the game been in Glasgow the result could have been different."

Baillie revealed that he has already written to the Magners League and the independent disciplinary panel to register his criticism of the procedure, but he has not ruled out an official protest. "We need to think about what we do now. It won't make any difference to this game, and everyone recognises that it was next to impossible to make a decision affecting these semi- finals at a hearing just two days before, but the fact is the timing has cost us a home tie. The hearing should have been earlier.

"The play-offs have been a great addition to the competition and we have to look at how we make the most of them. I wouldn't like to overshadow how good a season it has been and I feel desperately sorry for the Glasgow fans, especially those who made their way down here.

"The fact that Glasgow have contributed eight players to the Scotland team and to reach the play-offs has been a tremendous achievement, but it is just incredibly frustrating that it might have been better."

On the game itself, Lineen was a similar mix of frustration and acceptance of the fact that his team were capable of better than they managed to produce last night.

The frustration came when asked to comment on the Ospreys' propensity for lying over ball in rucks, diving in from the side and tying in Glasgow players trying to move ball, illegally.

"Yes, we can all see it," he said. "They get away with murder. They do it very well and you've got to applaud them there. They are not rolling away, they're lying over it and making it very difficult for us to play.

"That's not sour grapes, because it doesn't change the fact that we didn't deserve to win the game. We were not clinical enough, we coughed up the ball too much and we did not play the game enough where we needed to; where we had planned to.

"It's always difficult to play against the Ospreys because they are incredibly physical and the number of times they take players out off the ball... that's incredible too. And we get done for blocking! They are masters at playing the man and not the ball, but there is so much going on in the game that officials can't see it all."

However, the coach was keen to also accentuate the positives, insisting that he was immensely proud of his squad's ability simply to overcome much poorer resources to reach the semi-finals and make the Ospreys work very hard for their win.

"That is important," he said. "I'm so proud of the guys. You look at their effort - they emptied themselves out there. Glasgow and Scotland should be proud of them because they have stood toe to toe with the an incredibly talented squad tonight.

"It has been a massive few weeks, and there are a lot of broken bodies in that dressing room. We prepared well and there was belief there that we could have beaten them. We got the try after half-time and if Dan (Parks] had kicked one of his penalties, then we could have kept in there and gone on from it, but their defence was incredible and their momentum comes from their defence. We can't complain about the result.

"It's hugely disappointing for them tonight, but we can build on this going forward."