IN an ideal world, you want your team’s season to come to a triumphant conclusion in April or May. In the case of Edinburgh, however, there is a real danger that, for all practical purposes, their season could be over in the next couple of weeks.

As things stand, there is still something to play for, and the move to Myreside next month could breathe new life into a club that has long been in need of reinvigoration. But if they lose the forthcoming Challenge Cup double-header against Stade Francais, and if that is compounded by a loss to Glasgow in the first 1872 Cup match, the already murky outlook will begin to blacken.

Edinburgh sit top of Pool 5 at present, but defeats on Saturday then next Thursday would see them fall behind their French opponents, while Harlequins too would almost certainly go above them following their own back-to-back matches against makeweights Timisoara Saracens. As for the PRO12, they are tenth in the table, with only the two Italian clubs below them, and already lie 13 points outside the top six. Defeat to their Scottish rivals on Boxing Day would surely all but end their hopes of getting into the upper half of the league table and claiming a place in next season’s Champions Cup.

Needless to say, however, no-one within the Edinburgh camp is looking at the coming weeks in quite so gloomy a fashion. They have lost their last two games, to the Ospreys and the Dragons, but there is one obvious reason to feel optimistic about the weekend’s game at Murrayfield against Stade Francais: the return of more of their Scotland players.

While Edinburgh were struggling, the national team were thriving, beating Argentina and Georgia and losing to Australia by just a single point in the three Autumn Tests. Hamish Watson, who played in all three internationals from start to finish, is confident that the high morale within the Scotland camp can be communicated to his team to help them return to winning ways.

“It was a great experience,” the openside flanker said of the three matches. “We all played pretty well. We missed out narrowly against Australia, but we were all pleased with how we performed going into the Six Nations.

“You learn a lot being in that environment - playing three Tests of 80 minutes against some top quality-opposition, and having different coaches for a while. You learn different things off different coaches, so you pick up a lot of small things, minor details.

“There were three types of opposition that was very different. The speed of the Australians, who are very good in attack, then you had the Argies who were good at the breakdown and tried to disrupt everything - that was a very different game to the Australian one. Then the Georgians, who were all massive - not too well drilled but with a very good set piece. When they got going in the second half you could see they were a good team.”

Watson sat out last week’s loss to the Ospreys because of a couple of minor knocks picked up while on Scotland duty, but is fit to play this week. In fact, with John Hardie having been injured against the Wallabies, Watson is the only natural No 7 who Edinburgh have available, meaning he should start both on Saturday then again a week tomorrow in Paris.

He suggested that the mood within the Edinburgh camp was not too down at present, partly because it is only a month since they put in one of their best performances of the season so far, the PRO12 win at home to Ulster. Even so, he accepted that an injection of positivity would not go amiss.

“International rugby is a step up, so hopefully I can bring the things I learned there back to Edinburgh,” the 25-year-old continued. “Morale was very high in the Scotland camp because we were going very well. All the boys have come back in and lift the boys.

“Although morale isn’t down in the Edinburgh camp we have lost two on the bounce since the Ulster game. It’s all about trying to lift everyone and bring a bit of good vibe back from the Scotland camp - keep everyone going and bring back as much positive energy as we can.”

Besides the Ulster match, the other high point has been the Challenge Cup win over Harlequins - a result which Watson is sure the team will use to remind themselves of how well they can play. “We’ve been going well in Europe - we did well against Timisoara Saracens and did well in that game as well.

“It’s a case of not being so inconsistent – one week our defence will be good, the other bad, our attack good then bad – we have to get it all on a level playing field and start playing more consistently.

“If we get two wins against Stade that builds really nicely into the Glasgow game and then Zebre away. It’s all about momentum. We have to try to get a few victories and then come back into the PRO12 firing.”