Emotional Lineen gets set for goodbye

It WAS an emotionally-charged atmosphere come the final whistle at Firhill as several members of this Glasgow squad, players and coaches alike, will be moving on at the end of the season, including head coach Sean Lineen, writes Iain Morrison.

Club captain Al Kellock took control of the microphone after his team had booked their second play-off appearance in three seasons. The big lock paid tribute to the leavers including Lineen, who then took over as master of ceremonies and thanked those who have made his last nine years with the club both enjoyable and fruitful.

Lineen, pictured, praised the fans before adding “and we have never lost to Edinburgh at Firhill”, which was greeted by the biggest roar of the evening.

A little later, in the press conference, Lineen was surrounded by a swarm of journalists as he talked about nine years of battling up and down the M8 every working day of his life, one aspect of being Glasgow coach he probably won’t miss. He suggested that the team’s current consistency was his proudest achievement and he talked about how his young side had learned to cope with being favourites – not that that will be a problem next Saturday in Dublin.

“We have played against Leinster four times this season and we’ve beaten them but they are the yardstick for Europe at the moment so it’s going to be incredibly tough,” said the coach. “They have a fantastic squad, they rested a lot of their players this week, so we need to make sure that we keep the players fresh, look at how we are going to play against them and make sure that we go over there and give it everything.

“Two seasons ago we talked about falling over the line when we made the play-offs and we maybe left something in the tank when we played against the Ospreys. This year the guys are really focused on going at least one more stage. It’s a great place to go and play. It’ll be a packed stadium and I’m sure that we’ll have a lot of support.”

What were his overwhelming emotions after nine years with Glasgow, seven of them spent as head coach?

“It’s pretty hard to keep the emotions in check, it hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he admitted.

“You know what happens in sport and you just have to deal with it and move on. You just move on, I’m looking forward to my new job [with the SRU] and hopefully I’ve still got two matches still to go.”