If there were a competition for the most depressed coach in Scotland over the weekend, it would be hard to decide whether to give it to Sean Lineen, the man in charge of Glasgow, or Andy Robinson, his Edinburgh counterpart.

Both had good reason to feel upset, and with only one win in the opening four games, a lot of the feelgood factor carried over from last season has already evaporated.

Before the season started, Lineen had talked about the pleasure he took in the new respect being shown to Scottish rugby, but he knows that the Ospreys side that came from behind to score in the final minute of their clash at Firhill was not far off a second string, and Robinson knows that however many injury problems the squad faces, there are no excuses for surrendering 50 points, even against Leinster, the Magners League champions.

The worrying thing for Edinburgh is that they will face Leinster again next month in the Heineken Cup, but by then the Irish province should be even stronger with Rocky Elsom on his way from Australia and CJ van der Linde arriving from South Africa to add to their back and front rows.

Edinburgh’s only hope is that they should have a few of their own leading players back in action. Their injury problems meant that they had only three fit back-row men, and had to put Andy Kelly, a hooker, on the bench as cover.

For all that, though, the difference between the sides was on the wing, where Luke Fitzgerald ran riot on his way to a hat-trick, helped by some dismal kicking by players who should know better, including one try from a charge-down of Hugo Southwell’s delayed clearance.

At least Robinson can see where his side can be strengthened after this 52-6 stuffing. For Lineen, the real depression is that he was fielding about as strong a side as he can put out.

Perhaps the unique circumstances that saw Dan Parks looking a bag of nerves as he chased the Magners League scoring record – he eventually got it, but not until he had missed with three shots at goal and he went on to miss another three – are unlikely to be repeated, but the ability to close out games is vital and that was where Glasgow were at their worst.

After Thom Evans, who had a great game on the wing, edged his side ahead with his second try – both came from kicks, from Mark Mc-Millan for the first and Parks for the second – Glasgow needed to control the ball from the kick-off and establish themselves in the Ospreys half. Instead they coughed it up, gave away a string of penalties which eventually led to a player being sin-binned, and saw Alun Wyn Jones, the Ospreys lock, climbing over the top of a ruck to score the winning tries.

“Too naive,” was Lineen’s assessment. “We had not won the game, it was a great try by Thom Evans but we needed to get our heads back on after it. We struggled to make the game plan work. It is so frustrating, we don’t seem to have turned the corner when it comes to the old grey matter upstairs. We need to be stronger mentally and more disciplined during the game.”