Edinburgh coach Alan Solomons conceded that his side need to win their two remaining matches to have any chance of finishing in the top six of the Pro12 which will see them qualify for the Champions Cup next season.

A win in Dublin on Friday night would have been a timely boost to Edinburgh ahead of another tough away trip to Munster in two weekends’ time, but leaving the RDS with a deserved bonus point means they have given themselves a real chance now.

Sam Hidalgo-Clyne kicked a 79th-minute penalty to earn that solitary point, but earlier tries from Tom Brown, Michael Allan and Sean Kennedy meant Edinburgh’s never-say-die attitude took some reward.

Having spent the last two seasons in Europe’s second tier, Solomons’ side are surely keen to test themselves at the top level again, but their coach knows there is no room for error in the remaining two rounds.

“You’re 100 per cent right. We have to win them,” said Solomons. “We’ve got to beat Cardiff, and we’ve got to first deal with Munster and I’ve got a massive amount of respect for Munster. I always have had. All Irish sides are good. Certainly when I came to Ulster, Munster were the heartbeat of Irish rugby.

“You don’t go over there and have an easy game. It’s going to be really, really tough and Cardiff are a much improved side. That’s at Murrayfield, that’s going to be a tough game.

“But with what we showed tonight, if we play with that sort of commitment and that sort of character, we’re certainly in with a shout.”

Considering the setbacks that befell Edinburgh in this 80 minutes, a losing bonus point must be seen as a positive return – albeit the loss could yet be devastating to their ultimate aspirations.

Both centres, Chris Dean and Phil Burleigh, went off injured at half-time, and the six-two forwards-to-backs split on the bench meant Edinburgh had to play the second half with two scrum-halves and several players out of position. Young full-back Blair Kinghorn also limped off with eight minutes remaining and he had to be replaced by No 8 Magnus Bradbury, while flanker Hamish Watson finished the game on the wing.

They came through a hotchpotch 40 minutes winning plenty of admirers, but the injuries could yet impact further down the line. “I’m not massively optimistic about Phil Burleigh,” said Solomons. “The ankle doesn’t look good. Chris Dean has a groin injury. We’ve got to see. We did a little test, the medics did a test on him and he didn’t have the power in the groin so he had to come off because he would have turned the thing. We’ll just have to wait and see.

“Fortunately Matt Scott should be better. Andries Strauss is now back: he played at the Melrose Sevens and he’s got some game-time under his belt. Sammy Beard is there. We’ve got players that will have to cover and will have to step up to the mark.”