From sleight of hand to escapology, Edinburgh have pulled off a range of tricks to get their campaign off to a winning start, but they know they still have work to do to prove that the notion of contending for a place in the Heineken Cup knockout stages is no illusion.

The team have shown all the qualities necessary to progress by working their way to the top of Pool 2 after two matches but now comes the crunch as they confront a double header against the other unbeaten side, Cardiff Blues.

Both wins featured stunning comebacks, from 10 points behind at London Irish then from a staggering 24 points behind in beating Racing Metro at Murrayfield a week later. They produced some breathtaking handling and running, particularly in the second of those matches.

Enjoyable occasions they may have been, but Edinburgh know it now comes down to the nitty gritty of tournament rugby, as Nick De Luca, the Scotland centre, acknowledged.

"Currently we are Edinburgh globetrotters and we can't have that," he said. "There is no reason for us not to defend well. We are good individually and we have shown we can defend. It is about putting the same effort in there that we do in attack.

"London Irish was great defensively but Aironi should not have scored two tries last week. Racing Metro the same . . . We leak soft tries across the board. Fingers crossed, we can sort things out this weekend and put in a performance closer to London Irish defensively and Racing Metro attackingly."

Which is not to suggest that he is doing anything but revelling in the way his team is taking the game to the opposition, particularly having been part of a Scotland side that was so short of finishing power at the World Cup.

"Edinburgh have always liked to throw it about and it is good to see we have gone back to that," he said.

"We are not the biggest side in the world and we can't out-arm-wrestle sides. We have to outrun them and move them about. It can look a bit harem-scarem at times, a bit of a circus, but it is coming off. That is the confidence we have, we are doing little tip-ons, little flicks and because it is coming off, it is great.

"It is a positive from a Scotland point of view that we are scoring tries because if we go into the Six Nations in the same vein of form, the tries will hopefully come naturally."

He admitted there was something of a change of mindset from playing with the national team and is hoping there can be some carry-over from one to the other.

"It [the lack of tries] is in the back of your mind playing for Scotland and sometimes the boys go into their shells a bit," he admitted. "If we can express ourselves in this way there should not be a difference going into the Six Nations. It is the same opposition, the same players and it is about getting the partnerships right.

"In the World Cup, the weather had a lot to do with it. I genuinely felt if it had been a dry night when we played Argentina we would have scored a few tries. It is about getting in the habit of scoring tries."

De Luca accepted, too, that Scots could not use weather conditions as an excuse and that the fault lay within.

"With the weather being crap maybe we went to the default option and just ran. Our skills set is fine though. We should have forced it. If we are doing it week in and week out it should be second nature," he said.

First thing is first, though, and while it is inevitable that those contending for places will hope the national management is watching, the opportunity right now is at club level.

"I had a meeting with Andy Robinson on Tuesday night so you can't avoid thinking what he is looking for and look a bit forward to Scotland but our day job is Edinburgh and I have always wanted to do a lot with the club," said De Luca.

If they can sustain the form that has produced a haul of 13 tries in registering close to 100 points in their last two home matches then that is a real prospect. However, scoring freely must be seen purely as a means to an end and the 27-year-old explained that such is the renewed understanding of what is required in the professional game that the response of the players to what happened in their last European outing was rather different to that of their supporters.

"At 17-3 up we should be comfortable but we went 24 points down before winning it," he observed. "It was fantastic to get back to win that but we should never have put ourselves in that position. As a fan it would be an amazing game with tries and comebacks all over the place. As a professional rugby player and wanting to do well in this competition we do not want to just entertain. We want to do that to bring the fans in, but we want to win and we won't win if we defend like that again."