Ryan Lamb had one of his better days for Gloucester in this semi-final, scoring the dozen points that saw off the Ospreys long before Iain Balshaw intercepted a pass and ran away for the only try of the game. It hasn't always been the case this season that the outside-half has run his team's affairs on the field with authority, not to mention his bout of student-bashing in March, when he punched somebody who told him he was a good player.

In fact, such has been his general ­waywardness that Gloucester have been busy gathering replacements, such as Nicky Robinson from the Cardiff Blues and Carlos Spencer from the old folks' home. But on Saturday the bad lad of old Gloucester was very good.

No doubt Dean Ryan was pleased. Well, perhaps the Gloucester coach was a bit worried that Lamb might belt him if he praised him fulsomely, but to be honest big Ryan could still take out little Ryan with a swat, so there was something else obviously afoot when he was asked about the situation with his No10 and he responded with a curt: "He's contracted to us." Is Ryan [the Lamb] talking to other clubs? "No idea." I think it is fair to say that Lamb and his coach do not do a lot of ­joshing at the moment.

Anyway, Lamb scored 12 points through three penalties and a drop goal that ­followed a breathtaking chase and catch of one of his high kicks by the estimable Olly Morgan. And Balshaw went the length of the field to score a try after intercepting a pass from Mike Phillips.

Two things were noteworthy about the try. First, the pass was delivered with all the hesitancy that summed up the Ospreys' performance. They won stacks of ball and made loads of breaks but when it came to finishing off all this hard work, they were dreadful. That inefficiency included opting to go for tries from penalties, rather than three points. There is confidence and then there is rashness. This was not rugby at its brightest.

Most guilty of individual mistakes was the scrum-half Jamie Nutbrown, ­amazingly chosen ahead of Phillips. On the other hand, when Phillips did arrive he served up the pass to Balshaw.

There remains the nagging doubt that for all their glittering individual talents the Ospreys remain as far away as ever from being a good, let alone complete, team.

Even Shane Williams, who must have beaten more opponents than there were spectators in the half-full stadium, could not convert his dancing into points. The Ospreys finished on a fat, ugly blob of zero points.

The second point was that Balshaw injured himself in the act of scoring, the final wounded warrior on a day of much to-ing and fro-ing among the ­replacements and physiotherapists.

Mike Tindall, Alasdair Dickinson and James Simpson-Daniel all left ­disconsolately, while among the Ospreys there were exits for Ian Gough and Gavin Henson. And those were just the ­international players.

Henson looked the most serious, his ankle – not the one that kept him out of the Six Nations – unable to take any weight at all. He fell while running along, a non-­contact injury, ­sometimes the most serious.

In between the injuries, the Lamb points, the Balshaw try and the Ospreys' errors there was plenty of the real stuff of which Gloucester's victory was made, their tackling. They put themselves about like a team possessed, with Gareth Delve at No8 an utterly heroic stopper.

Now that did have coach Ryan purring, for such commitment comes only from the players themselves. "Outstanding display," he said, "showing great maturity." Words that might once have been reserved for his outside-half were used here for his team of tacklers.