I n a normal year, the fallen leaves are blowing round the streets of Edinburgh by the time the city's rugby supporters realise the full extent of their team's limitations.

So we should probably commend Alan Solomons and his players for extinguishing their followers' hopes, and disabusing them of any silly aspirations, with such ruthlessly swift efficiency this season.

The optimism that every fan is entitled to carry into a new campaign was nourished by Edinburgh's remarkable Guinness PRO12 opening weekend victory over Munster at Thomond Park almost three weeks ago. After their wretched 2013-14 season, it seemed that a corner had been turned by the capital side. Problem was, it led them straight into another brick wall.

It was tempting to believe the 13-14 home loss to Connacht in their second game was just a bump on the road, probably borne of complacency after the win in Limerick. "That'll be the wake-up call they needed," was the consensus among fans and commentators. Some wake-up. Against Ospreys three days ago, Edinburgh were not so much half-asleep as catatonic.

The consequence was a 62-13 hammering by the Welsh outfit. It was Edinburgh's heaviest defeat in the Celtic competition since the old and largely unloved Welsh/Scottish league was expanded to include Irish sides in 2001, but the numbers tell only part of the story. Edinburgh were simply abysmal in the Liberty Stadium; their attacking efforts dissolved in a risible flurry of handling errors while it would flatter their defensive structure to describe it as a meet-and-greet arrangement. Had Ospreys been so minded, they could have taken the scoreline past 80. Alex Salmond probably felt jollier last Friday than Solomons did on Sunday evening. There is certainly more scope for redemption in a 55-45 defeat than a 49-point margin of defeat. This was a game in which Edinburgh were little more than spectators, especially in the final quarter when Ospreys turned a comfortable win into a complete tanking, rubbing salty ignominy into Edinburgh's wounds by running in four more tries.

The spectacle was all the more gruesome in light of what Glasgow Warriors had managed to pull off just along the M4 the previous day. Against Newport Gwent Dragons, the Warriors had suffered what looked to be a critical blow when Tyrone Holmes was harshly red-carded in the first minute of the second half. Glasgow were 13-3 ahead at that point, and the likeliest prospect was that their 14 men would be overwhelmed in the 39 minutes remaining.

Instead, they girded themselves magnificently, scored three tries while short-handed and ran out 33-13 winners, with a bonus point to boot.

But there's more. Because Glasgow also closed out the game without Josh Strauss and Niko Matawalu, both of whom were injured in the course of it. They also started without Sean Maitland, who has missed the first three PRO12 games due to an ankle problem.

So they finished without the three imported players who are most often cited as the drivers behind their recent success. Which tells you that quality now runs deep at Scotstoun.

Now I tend to shudder when issues of ethnicity are brought up in relation to the two Scottish pro sides. Of far more interest to me is where players have learned the game, regardless of which country - if any - they might ultimately play for.

In that regard, the contrast between Glasgow and Edinburgh is striking. In their 23-strong matchday squad last weekend, Glasgow had 14 players who were, in essence, the products of a Scottish rugby upbringing; Edinburgh had just five.

Out of curiosity, I checked the figures for Edinburgh's final game of the 2012-13 PRO12 season, a home tie with the Dragons at Murrayfield, their last competitive match before Solomons took over.

Remarkably, their match squad that day mirrored Glasgow's from last weekend, with 14 players who had come through the Scottish ranks. It is worth adding that Edinburgh won 31-24.

In other words, Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend has built a winning side in which the majority of the players are home-grown. Solomons, by contrast, has destroyed one.

Too simplistic, of course. In the spring of 2013, Edinburgh were enjoying a late PRO12 rally - they won three of their last five games - but the rest of the season had been disastrous. Their numbers (and possibly results) at the moment are distorted by the fact that Matt Scott and Dave Denton are on the long-term injured list. But the fact remains that Solomons has allowed too many good Scottish players to slip away, while shipping in too many very ordinary southern hemisphere players in their places.

With the noble exception of Cornell Du Preez, whose nobility was not exactly obvious at the weekend, the vast majority of Solomons' signings have been on a spectrum from the humdrum to the ho-hum. His policy, clearly, has failed. Just as clearly, he has to be held to account for it.

In his first year in charge, Solomons claimed that Edinburgh's problems largely came down to their inadequate pre-season preparations. He had complete control over that factor before this, his second year at the helm. Yet to all intents and purposes his side has gone backwards. The question must be asked whether he is still the right man to get them back on course.