Twelve tries and a defensive clean sheet were all very well, but what pleased Edinburgh captain Fraser McKenzie most was the focus which brought about both as his side maintained their 100 per cent record in European Challenge Cup Pool 4 to be all but certain of qualification for the knockout stages with two matches still to play.

The 29-year-old lock took over the club captaincy at a time of potential crisis due to off-field issues, which had resulted in his immediate predecessor Magnus Bradbury losing the post and international flanker John Hardie being handed a lengthy suspension. His principal task was conseuqnelty to help the management rebuild the club’s culture and in that context he was satisfied that on a night when it would have been easy to lapse into self-indulgence, his men set about their work as they did in thrashing Russian side Krasny Yar 78-0.

“It was hard in a different way tonight. It was how do you keep your concentration for the full 80 minutes; how do you get back on track when you’re scoring so often? We focused on sticking to our systems because games like that become very unstructured and it can all of a sudden turn to disarray but we controlled the ball and controlled the game and there were zero points against, which was one of our aims,” said McKenzie.

“We do not drop our standards no matter who we play. We can’t affect who they field or who we play, we can only play against the opposition who turn up. Job done, now our concentration switches to Glasgow.”

The forthcoming festive derbies will clearly have far greater intensity than a sequence of three matches against South African, English and Russian opponents that have seen Edinburgh accrue 176 points which the skipper believes is due reward for the way they have set about their business.

“We’re beginning to click. We’ve set goals and stuck to them,” he said. “We’re hard on ourselves and the regardless of who plays those standards are kept high.”

That has been encouraged by the development of proper competition for places within a squad that has been regularly rotated as head coach Richard Cockerill has spent the first half of the season assessing what he has at his disposal. That is exemplified by the captain’s situation since he is by no means guaranteed a starting slot as he competes for a place with, among others, current internationalists Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis and McKenzie welcomes that situation.

“If I’m not playing well enough I don’t play,” he said.

“If you’re captain you’re not an automatic starter and I think that’s what’s good about Cockers, he drives standards.”