Scotland international No.8 Johnnie Beattie did manage to get 32 minutes under his belt coming off the bench in the second half but there were few positives for Lineen to take with Glasgow now only above winless Aironi in the Magners League table.

Lineen said: “The team is low on confidence, we are low on leadership – missing 16 players, 13 of whom would start, is just too much for us.

“We butchered two tries in the first half, the scrum got smashed so there was no platform there, but the good thing is they are trying.

“They played quite well in the last 20 minutes of the first half, got over the line twice, but just could not score.

“It was summed up by the Ospreys’ fourth try. We were camped on their line for ages, one guy tries to be the hero and goes on his own only to be turned over, and they score at the other end.

“It is a composure thing. Horney (Peter Horne] should have given the ball to DTH (van der Merwe] earlier, but he was trying to score and do well – he just did not make the right decision.

“The same happened with Peter Murchie, so we are creating, the spirit is strong. These guys are learning the hard way, but we have to get through this patch, but it is hard to take.

“Defensively we had no line speed, high tackles, fended off – we made it far too easy for them.

“We had a lot of youngsters under the age of 21 in the back line, so they are learning.”