EDINBURGH are in danger of repeating another season where a Heineken Cup run is accompanied by failure in the league.

After qualifying for a home European quarter-final against Munster with some storming performances in the pool stage of that competition, they have lost three out of four league matches to plunge from second to fifth in their Guinness PRO14 conference.

It has echoes of 2012, when they reached the Heineken Cup semi final but finished 11th in the PRO12, as it was then, though Richard Cockerill, the head coach, has promised the battle is not over and he still believes they can get enough wins to reach the end-of-season play-offs.

The main similarity is the trouble Edinburgh have producing results have when they have to dip below their accepted first team, for example when players are taken away for international duty or when they need to rest ahead of big European weekends. That is where their strength in depth is tested and where it has been found wanting.

Last year, they supplied about half a dozen players to the national squad and won all of the four matches that clashed with the Guinness Six Nations to set themselves up for a play-off spot. This year, they are supplying up to 10 to the playing squad and more to the training group, but have lost three out of four during the Six Nations window.

If they do fail to climb from fifth to at least third in the final four games, then for all the controversy surrounding their defeat in Treviso, it will not have been the game that cost them a winning season, that dubious honour can go to defeats by basement clubs the Dragons and Kings as well as throwing away a 17 point lead to Cardiff Blues.

They always knew the season finale was going to be tough. They find themselves desperate for wins and playing the other four teams in the top five of their conference in successive matches. The one at the weekend, against Benetton was the first of those and despite taking a narrow lead into the final quarter, they came away from a scrappy encounter without even the consolation of a losing bonus point.

"In isolation it’s disappointing but I just said to the boys: 'we’ve got 4 games to go, there is every chance we can qualify in that top three'," said Cockerill. "We will fight every inch to make sure that we do that. Our season is very much alive but when you get an opportunity you have to take it. It’s hard work in the Six Nations period but we have to deal with that.

"We have to learn, when we are two points up not to overplay in our own half. We don’t have to force the game; we had to control the game and at times we didn’t. The only way is to do it [make mistakes] and learn.”

It's been a brutal learning curve for Edinburgh's youngsters over the last month. They were ahead going into the final quarter against the Southern Kings, Cardiff Blues and Benetton but lost them all, though none of the others had quite the anguish of the go-ahead score in Italy.

They were hanging on to a two point lead when Tom Brown, the full back, found himself chasing the ball over the line with Antonio Rizzi, the replacement fly half, and Monty Ioane, the wing, also in hot pursuit.

Television replays later showed he had got a hand to the ball ahead of the others, but George Clancy, the referee, and Alan Falzone, the television match official, took almost no time in ruling that Rizzi had grounded it and Edinburgh were left chasing the game, with a late Rizzi penalty costing them even the losing bonus point.

"Look they have only lost [at home] to Leinster and Ulster the whole season so they are a difficult side to beat," Cockerill added. "Maybe we made it more difficult for ourselves than we needed to. I’ll look at the try they scored from the kick through but we had opportunities to exit our 22 better and we need to learn that. Unfortunately that hurt us.

"This won’t be the game that defines whether we are in the play-offs or not, though there are plenty aspects of the game where we should have done better. We have a compromised squad with a couple of players to come back and they are a good squad and a good side. Really tight margins and we have to manage tight margins better.”

The big plus for Cockerill was again the form of James Johnstone, who had put them ahead with a solo try, sidestepping his way through a crowded defence, and for a while that seemed to be enough with Jaco van der Walt adding the conversion and a penalty.

"He scored a very good try and he created that for himself," said Cockerill when asked about a Scotland call for the player. "He is one of the guys who could take the opportunity, he has already trained with the Scotland squad, so he’s certainly put his hand up for selection. Gregor [Townsend] will decide that.”

The other Scotland involvement saw WP Nel play 40 minutes and Hamish Watson 50 as they came back from injury. In both cases they came through fine and Cockerill made clear the restricted game time was in agreement with the Scotland management.