Ospreys 20 Glasgow 5:Tries by Shane Williams and James Hook booked the Ospreys a place in the Magners League Grand Final in a hard-fought last four clash against Glasgow at the Liberty Stadium.
But a crowd of only 7,079 watched the Ospreys reach the showpiece on May 29th, where they will play the winners of Saturday night’s clash between Leinster and Munster at the RDS.
Glasgow have never won on Ospreys turf and they were not helped by Dan Parks failing with two penalties and missing the conversion for Fergus Thomson’s second-half try.
The Ospreys went into the game weighed down by a €117,000 fine and a four-point deduction for next season for breaching Magners League rules for not fulfilling their March 19th fixture in Ulster.
But they put that behind them as they took a narrow 7-0 lead into half-time.
Alun Wyn Jones, who was making his 100th appearance for the Ospreys, stole an early lineout as the home side pressed Glasgow’s 22. But solid defence forced Dan Biggar into a drop-goal attempt which he pushed wide.
But on 10 minutes the Ospreys had their first try. Glasgow knocked on in contact on the halfway line, Williams picked up, evaded a tackle and ran in unopposed for only his third try for the side this season. But there was a suspicion Williams had a foot in touch as he ran clear.
The Ospreys had the better of the referee’s decisions but what penalties Glasgow had Parks missed with long range efforts on 14 and 34 minutes.
The only other try scoring chance of the half came in injury time when Andrew Bishop charged down a Parks kick, but the Ospreys centre knocked on just five metres short as he tried to gather the ball.
The second half began in dramatic fashion with Glasgow scoring a try in only the second minute. Hooker Bernard Thomson went over in the left corner after scrumhalf Mark McMillan had picked up a loose palm down at a line-out from Ryan Jones.
But in the space of three minutes the Ospreys were back in control of the contest leading 17-5. A Biggar penalty was followed by a fine try from Hook, who made a fine break down the left and then chipped over the cover defence to regather and go over.
After that the Ospreys took full control of the game and put some gloss on the scoreline with an injury time penalty for Biggar.