PEOPLE had talked a lot about how losing World Cup players would affect teams like Edinburgh, but on the evidence of this, the forced break while the tournament is being played south of the Border is having just as serious an effect.

Alan Solomons,the Edinburgh head coach, certainly felt his side were ring rusty as they came back from their World Cup break for a one-off special before the club season turns from famine to feast in a couple of weeks with 16 matches on consecutive weekends.

"We got the win, but it wasn't pretty, we know that and have spoken about it. Some of the guys will have a little bit of a break, some will have to come in and work. The short turnaround will help in that there will be less ring rust," he said.

"To come back after that first half when we struggled for territory and possession was the big plus. We could have put more points on the board but as I said to the boys it isn't three out of three, really five out of five because the two friendlies were big games, and that is a positive. Winning generates confidence. Tonight we didn't have the best game but got the win and that was important."

If the aim had been to make a case for league rugby during the World Cup, it failed dismally. Despite playing in near perfect conditions, neither side seemed the least bit interested in running with the ball for the first 40 minutes as the game degenerated into a game of kick tennis livened up only by the occasional scrum and slightly more frequent maul. As a reward for those keen enough to turn up, it was poor fare.

When Edinburgh did try to open up in the second half as they dominated possession and territory, they found tries desperately hard to come by and it was not until nearly the end that they could feel confident they were out of reach of a breakaway score.

Sam Davies, the Ospreys fly-half, had kicked three first-half penalties to cancel out a try, scored by Phil Burleigh, the fly-half, after the forwards had at last let the ball out to the backs after spending 10 minutes trying to batter they way over the line.

"You have always got to give credit to the opposition and the Ospreys defended well," said Solomons. "We had a number of try-scoring opportunities in the second half, which was pleasing because we turned it around in terms of territory and possession and were well on top."

The spent most of the final half hour in Ospreys territory and carved the defence open several times only for determined cover and their own mistakes to cost them the chances until John Andress, the prop, eventually drove over from the back of a maul to make the game safe.

Edinburgh: Try: Burleigh (37), Andress (74). Cons: Tonks, Cuthbert. Pens: Tonks 2 (47, 63)

Ospreys: Penalty goals: Davies 3 (4, 18, 39) Scoring sequence (Edinburgh first): 0-3, 0-6, 7-6, 7-9 (half time), 10-9, 13-9, 20-9.

Edimnburgh: G Tonks (rep: J Cuthbert, 72); T Brown, C Dean (rep: J Johnstone, 72), A Strauss, D Hoyland; P Burleigh, S Kennedy; R Sutherland (rep: A Dell, 48), N Cochrane (rep: G Turner, 75), J Andress (rep: S Berghan, 75), A Bresler (rep: A Toolis, 76), F Mckenzie, M Coman (C) (rep: H Watson, 48), R Grant, C Du Preez.

Ospreys: D Evans; H Dirksen, J Spratt (rep: A Jenkins, 66), B John, D Howells (T Habberfield, 72); S Davies, B Leonard; N Smith (sin bin: 29-39, rep: R Bevington, 66), S Parry (rep: S Otten, 66), D Arhip (rep: C Griffiths,76), L Ashley (C), R Thornton, J Bearman (rep: R Bernardo, 76), S Underhill (rep: O Cracknell, 41, sin bin: 63-73), D Baker (rep: R Bevington, 33-39).

Referee: A Brace (Ireland)

Attendance: 2,475