Barely a fortnight ago, Edinburgh were toasting a mighty victory over Toulon in the Champions Cup. A statement win over a top French side, it should have been a platform upon which to build.
Finally, a launchpad to a brighter and more prosperous future under their head coach Sean Everitt, who is now halfway through his third season in charge.
But as they left Hampden on Saturday night, after being soundly beaten 24-12 by Glasgow Warriors in the first leg of the 1872 Cup, Edinburgh were right back to square one.
Gun-shy and failing to fire any kind of meaningful shot in attack, this has been an all too frequent criticism during the Everitt era.
‘We’ll review the game and see where we get better from an attack point of view,’ said Everitt, whose side never threatened Glasgow anywhere near enough.
‘You have to fire some shots from an attack point of view and it didn’t work out for us.
Glasgow Warriors were too strong for Edinburgh at Hampden in the first leg of the 1872 Cup
Duhan van der Merwe challenges Glasgow’s Kyle Steyn in the air for the ball at Hampden
Edinburgh just couldn’t stop Glasgow as they ran in four tries to win 24-12
‘I know we weren’t good on attack. And it’s for us as coaches to have a look and see where we can improve.’
Everitt has said this all too many times before. But why should it always be a case of promising to be better next week? Why always the promise of jam tomorrow?
Under his guidance, Edinburgh are a team who lack identity in terms of how they attack. They routinely fail to make the most of the weapons available to them.
On Saturday, Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham were nothing more than passengers for large swathes of the 80 minutes.
Edinburgh couldn’t get them into the game. Neither Van der Merwe nor Graham made a single meaningful line break between them. Metres made with ball in hand? Negligible.
What is the point of having these two world-class wingers if the head coach can’t devise a gameplan to get the ball to them and maximise their talents?
You wonder what a head coach like Franco Smith might do with a side that has the firepower of Graham and Van der Merwe in the backline, married to the forward grunt that are the hallmark of his teams.
If only there was a job or team that would allow us to explore such a possibility…
But going back to Edinburgh. It was notable just how utterly bemused and detached Graham and Van der Merwe looked at times.
When Van der Merwe went off near the end, nursing a slight knock which might impact his involvement next week, he looked like a man who had just sat through nearly 80 minutes of a really awful movie.
One he has seen all too many times before in recent years. Graham marched off the field at full-time and wore the look of a player totally scunnered with his lack of involvement.
You could excuse it as a bad day at the office if it was a one-off. But this failure to have a proper gameplan in attack is now emblematic of the Everitt’s time in charge.
‘It was probably the best we’ve defended all season,’ said Edinburgh lock Glen Young. ‘But when we are in the game [in attack], we’ve got to kill them off.
‘We can take pride in how we defended, but Glasgow were probably more clinical than us. We need to be more clinical.’
Edinburgh held on and made a game of it in the first half. They trailed by only two points at 7-5 as the teams went in at half-time, with Matt Fagerson and Dylan Richardson trading tries.
Beyond the Fagerson try, they actually held Glasgow up over the try line on three further occasions. Heroic defence from Edinburgh or clinging on for dear life? You can make your own mind up.
But the Warriors pulled clear in the second half with two tries in five minutes from the outstanding Rory Darge and Gregor Hiddleston.
Edinburgh briefly threatened a fightback when Grant Gilchrist scored with 10 minutes remaining, but there was never any genuine prospect of them winning this match.
Glasgow scored a fourth try to secure the bonus-point win and a 12-point advantage ahead of next week’s second leg when replacement hooker Seb Stephen dived over at the end.
Duhan van der Merwe didn’t have many chances to show his attacking threat and was also taken off with an injury
That’s a big old lead. On the basis of what they showed on Saturday, the prospect of Edinburgh being able to overturn a 12-point deficit is just not going to happen.
‘Yeah, 12 points in a derby game is a big deficit to catch up,’ admitted Everitt.
‘But we’re positive that if we can put up the same fight and the same physicality next week and be more accurate with ball in hand, that we’ve got an opportunity to do that.
‘It’s a pity about the last try that we conceded, I think seven points would have been a hell of a lot easier for us going into next week’s game.
‘But we haven’t lost faith. It’s another rugby game that has to be played. We’ve shown in the past that we can win, but we haven’t won with big enough margins.’
Everitt’s side defended stoutly enough and competed hard at the breakdown, but they just didn’t do anywhere near enough in attack.
There was a bluntness to Edinburgh, whereas Glasgow were able to find a cutting edge when they really needed to.
Given that the Warriors have won the 1872 Cup in each of the past three seasons, this felt like a continuation of the natural order in Scottish club rugby.
Smith’s teams will have designs on challenging for the URC title come the end of the season, whilst Edinburgh are still wildly inconsistent.
A team full of honest endeavour, solid in defence, yet somehow still unable to land a knockout blow when in the games that really matter.