EDINBURGH could not have made it harder for themselves but they got their season back into some sort of shape with a battling win despite losing the try count five-four to the gallant Italian visitors.

It was desperate hard luck for visiting wing Luca Sperandio who came away with a hat-trick of scores and the man of the match award but still found himself on the losing side as the kickers in his team failed to land any of the touchline scores while Simon Hickey, for the Scots, came away with a 100 percent record for conversions – though he did make life tough for his team-mates by missing a late penalty.

Still, in many ways, it was a hugely encouraging performance for Edinburgh, who showed the kind of attacking potential that has mainly been missing this season as the backs came good and the pack hung onto the ball for long periods.

The issues were in defence, where the Italian determination to move the ball around caught them out on enough occasions for Treviso to keep battling back into the game, recovering from 16 points behind to make a match of it in the final quarter.

When it really mattered, though they did hold their nerve despite being down to 14 men with Grant Gilchrist, the lock, in the sin bin and only a single point, not that it saved them from a tongue-lashing from head coach Richard Cockerill.

“Some things conspired against us,” he accepted. “But nothing as bad as our defence,” he added.

The positive was that they had plenty of energy and attacking flair when they had the ball but the determination seemed to drift out of the side when Benetton unveiled their speedy offloading game and the Scots struggled to keep up.

“We did some good things, got ourselves a good lead and then, for the first time since we have been together as a coaching group and as a team we decided that we did not want to defend. That was their most disappointing thing.

“We did some good things against a good side but then every time they had the ball they looked like they would score.”

The home side always knew this was never going to be as easy as matches against Italian opponents have often been in the eight years they have been part of the same competition.

For a start, there was the dire warning of what happened last year when Edinburgh produced comfortably their worst performance of the season and lost to the same opponents; for a second there had been the strong early-season performances from Benetton, particularly in the opening three games – two wins and a near miss at the Scarlets.

“It was progress from last year,” added Cockerill. “We only took a point from last year but we got five from this game. We are a better team than that but if you give them opportunities, are not accurate and are not physical, they will cause you problems. When we did not have the ball we did not cope with them.

“We will be putting our tackle suits on and doing a few extra drills as none of us are accepting that level of commitment defensively. At this level you can’t defend like that. As a team and playing group we are not going to accept that. We need to be better defensively. That is not good enough.”

Not that preparation or form had anything to do with the opening score as Edinburgh were penalised straight from the kick off and Tommaso Allan – who played age grade for Scotland before switching to represent Italy – slotting the points, only for Simon Hickey to answer in identical style for Edinbrugh

Matt Scott and Duhan van der Merwe served up the opening Edinburgh tries but as soon as the Italians got their hands on the ball they showed their threat with Luca Sperandio grabbing the first of his hat-trick of touchdowns before Cherif Traore, the prop, was driven over in a maul.

Chris Dean did the hard work for Blair Kinghorn’s try before Kinghorn himself laid on the score for Dougie Fife on the wing but from 31-15 down, the rest of the game was all Italian with Sperandio grabbing two more tries – the final one after endless television replays established he had got the ball down milliseconds before he landed in touch – and Marco Barbini was also mauled over the line.

Crucially, all the Italian tries were scored near the touchline and between them Allan and Ian McKinley, the two fly halves, could convert only one of the touchdowns leaving their side a point behind as the clock wound down to the end and Edinburgh celebrated the final-whistle sounding.