Edinburgh must recover from defeat in their biggest match of the season to show they can win when it matters in those that will define their season in the next month, according to their head coach.

Richard Cockerill expressed some pride in the way his team had set about seeking to eliminate European rugby knockout specialists Munster, before the Irishmen did what they have repeatedly done to the Continent’s best over the past two decades, in finding a way to win a match in which they had been largely out-played.

The home team were entitled to feel hard done by as they dominated possession and territory but came up against opponents who defended their line as if the lives of the thousands of Munster folk who had followed them to Scotland depended upon it. They knew how to make the big moments go their way, too, as Keith Earls - the lone remaining member of their squad who has experienced victory in this competition - demonstrated best in scoring both their tries, one in each half, to Edinburgh’s solitary touchdown from Chris Dean.

For the team that lost this match, but has out-performed hopes and expectations in both seasons under Cockerill so far, exposure to Munster’s Test match-plus intensity could yet prove valuable and the first opportunity to show what they have learned comes next weekend in a match at Llanelli that may well decide whether they return to the Champions Cup next season.

“Scarlets need to win too,” Cockerill pointed out.

“They've had a break and they'll be fresh, but playing doesn't hurt anybody. We'll recover, we’ll get ourselves right and the reality is we've got three games left in the season. We need to be right for them.”

That is central to the toughening up process he long ago identified as being a requirement if Scottish rugby in general and Edinburgh in particular are ever to rid themselves of an acceptance of inferiority that has long been a national characteristic.

“It will be massive,” Cockerill said of the Scarlets encounter.

“What happens in the next three weeks will have an impact on what happens over the next 12 months. We need to make sure that the next three games are solid and we try to get into the play-offs for the pro 14 and qualify for Europe.

“There's no point in resting people for these three games. What are they resting for? The beach? Scottish players, these lads, are not a protected species. They need to learn to rock up week in, week out, look after themselves properly, prepare properly and play to win. We did it last week and we've shown it today and I was got to do it again next week and the week after.

“We go to Glasgow at the end of the season. Our season is not dead. We've got to play every minute like it matters until we can’t go any further.

“You want to test yourself against the best. That's the challenge. It would be very disappointing not to be in (the Champions Cup) next year, but you get what you deserve. If we don't do deserve to be in it then we will play in the Challenge Cup and try to go as far as we can in that.

“We are two years into a project that takes a lot longer than that. We are making progress, but it's just progress.”

In those terms, after drawing a pool that contained two of the best funded French clubs, Toulon and Montpellier, this hosting of a Champions Cup quarter-final was a real bonus, but will only benefit them if they learn all they can from it, which includes working out how to react to being wronged.

They were, after all, entitled to ask why it was right that Pierre Schoeman was penalised for the charge on Tadgh Beirne which saw a penalty that was coming Edinburgh’s way in the middle of the pitch reversed then why, as the home team defended its goal-line earlier in the match, was Conor Murray not similarly punished for the off-the-ball dump tackle on Henry Pyrgos which opened a clear route to the goal-line for Keith Earls?

Those decisive key incidents summed up the fine margins at play in a sport that apparently remains too complex - even with the help of instant television reviews - to be officiated properly by those charged with doing so.

However, they also have only themselves to blame for failing to capitalise on early pressure when kickable penalty opportunities were turned and, even more so, when another such chance that would have change the dynamics of the closing exchanges, was turned down when they were leading 13-10.

The need to become tougher in every aspect is why Cockerill has taken calculated risks like recruiting Schoeman, a player with a chequered history, because like former Scotland coach Vern Cotter, he knew he had to introduce the sort of edge that has been removed from Scottish rugby by the pampering of indulgent coaches and administrators in recent years.

That is the context in which to place his post-match observation on the mistake that let Munster set up the field position from which they scored their winning try.

“It’s the difference in the referee, it’s the bounce of the ball, it’s a bit of discipline from Pierre Schoeman at the end and you’re kicking a goal and you’re six points up and you win the game. That’s life,” said Cockerill.

“I’m not going to criticise Pierre, because he’s a committed fellow and he does what he does and I’ll back him to the hilt, but those are the falls sometimes.”

A true product of Leicester Tigers in their brutal glory days under the captaincies of the likes of Dean Richards and Martin Johnson, who knew how to channel his anger, frustrations and resentments to be effect, Cockerill knows he needs more than nice homegrown lads who try really hard and, even more so, that there is no point in recruiting players who talk a good game but have been found out elsewhere and discarded.

On that basis the quartet of recruits from Australia, Fiji and South Africa that were revealed last week, can all be expected to bring dynamism and aggression to the camp next season. Meantime, those currently on the books have two months in which to demonstrate that they are learning what it takes to become winners in professional sport, but their coach has largely been encouraged by the way they are responding.

“The turnover in our squad won’t be huge,” he said.

“We are developing all the time and we will start from a higher base than we started preseason last year. The World Cup will get in the way, as it does, but we've just got to keep building our squad, building on what we do so that everything becomes more ingrained, more second nature. We've just got to keep going at it.

“It's a positive place to be and we’re doing some good things. I don't think anyone can say that wasn't a hell of a battle out there. We fell the wrong side of it, which is disappointing, but we have to take stock and make sure we learn from these things and those tiny margins fall our way in the next three games."