WE SHOULD be wary of reading too much into this result. Edinburgh will face far sterner tests against far more accomplished opponents in the weeks and months ahead, but as a starting point, this ticked several important boxes.

It wasn’t Duncan Hodge’s first game in charge, but given that he inherited a mess last Wednesday morning – by which time the team for the weekend had already been selected and the two major training days had passed – this was the first real chance to assess what sort of character this team might have under their new interim head coach.

Edinburgh played a free-wheeling offloading game. They took their tries when they were available to build up a commanding lead. Apart from one lapse at the start of the second half, their defence didn’t ever look like it was in being stretched – although that might say more about the quality of the error-prone opposition than anything else. And in Murray McCallum, they might just have given a first taste of professional rugby to a player capable of anchoring the scrum for years to come.

The 20-year-old has come through the ranks as a loosehead but Edinburgh reckon he has the physique and attitude to become a serious player at tighthead. He came on for Ewan McQuillin in the 62nd minute and immediately made his presence felt by pulverising his opposite number in a scrum on the halfway line.

One good scrum does not make a professional class tighthead – but he is certainly a character worth keeping an eye on.

It wasn’t a complete performance by Edinburgh. It was disappointing that they hardly built on their commanding half-time lead during the second half, until two late tries gave the score-line a pleasing gloss.

Really screwing Treviso into the ground during that second period would have been a handy PR stunt for their long-suffering fans who have become far too accustomed to watching games drifting aimlessly away – not that the Murrayfield faithful will be particularly disappointed that their try tally did not surpass seven.

“We couldn’t change too much this week in the time we had. There was a lot of mistakes there but in terms of our effort, desire and willingness to find space and be positive when we had the ball was all good,” said Hodge.

“We owed people a performance and it’s nice to feel that reward for the hard-work we’ve put in, and to do that for the fans who come to watch us.

Edinburgh grabbed the lead after only four minutes when the ball squirted out the side of a ruck and landed at Damian Hoyland’s feet. The winger picked up and set off like a rocket up the West Stand touchline for a seventy metre score, which he finished with a flourish by stepping inside the despairing last gasp lunge of the covering

The home team doubled their lead just three minutes later when Hamish Watson collected an inside pass from Chris Dean and seemed to be tackled by three Italians at the same time, but he somehow bounced out of that triple-whammy and over the line.

Former Scotland under-20 cap Tommaso Allan narrowed the gap with a penalty after Rory Sutherland got caught offside, but the bonus point was wrapped by the 31st minute with two quick fire tries created by Edinburgh’s adventurous offloading game.

The first was scored by Hoyland after another neat inside pass from Dean. The second was scored by Magnus Bradbury, who collected an overhead basketball-style pass from Hoyland on the right touchline, powered his way through a couple of half-hearted tackles, and then charged home from 30 yards.

Edinburgh gave away a soft try at the start of the second half when a close-range line-out drive lurched round 90 degree and Marco Fuser broke free to blast his way past Sean Kennedy and ground the ball, but the home side responded excellently with a fifth try, scored by Tom Brown and created by a bold miss three pass from Tovey.

Edinburgh then seemed to take their foot off the gas and the second half trundled past unspectacularly until the 69th minute, when Tovey put Brown over for his second try with an excellently weighted cross-field kick.

Right at the death, Lewis Carmichael, another exciting prospect, broke a tackle and fed John Hardie, who popped back inside to Blair Kinghorn for the seventh and final score.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, M Allen, C Dean (J Rasloea 56), T Brown; J Tovey, S Kennedy (S Kennedy 62); R Sutherland (A Dell 49), R Ford (S McInally 62), E McQuillin (M McCallum 62), B Toolis, G Gilchrist (L Carmichael 51-52), M Bradbury (G Bryce 76), H Watson (J Hardie 51), N Manu (L Carmichael 72).

Treviso: K McLean; A Esposito, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi, A Buondonno; T Allan, E Gori, A De Marchi O Gega, S Ferrari, F Gerosa, M Fuser, T Paulo, M Lazzaroni, A Steyn (R Santamaria 72).

Referee: I Davies (Wales)

Attendance: 3154