Edinburgh rugby reaction: Connacht defeat a 'good lesson' for young players says Sean Everitt

The Irish side booked their place in the play-offs by being resolute in defence and clinical in attack while the hosts by comparison were wasteful when opportunities came their way. It’s been the story of the season as a whole for the capital club with the South African claiming their offense has not been good enough across the campaign.

He said: “I've got to give credit to Connacht, they defended really desperate tonight. But yeah, really disappointed that we couldn't get over the line and get a win tonight.

“A good lesson for us as well from a physicality point of view, we had eight youngsters in the team. They'll learn from the experience but you've got to win the physical battle as well and that'll help you get over the line.

“Unfortunately our maul didn't function as well as it could have and we could have been better with ball in hand.

“Obviously we've got this off-season now and pre-season to go and work on what we need to work on and the attack let us down this season, I believe. You know, last year we were good with ball in hand. So yeah, you know, we got our loss into combination on the field tonight.

“And that's where we are. But like I said, it's going to take a squad of 45 to be able to do well in this competition, and we're not there yet as far as that's concerned.”

On the season as a whole, Everitt added: “There's multiple reasons why we haven't got there. I thought in the first block we probably let a few games slip there by losing by one or two points and I think that cost us dearly those first four weeks.

“If you get three of those wins in the first block it makes it a hell of a lot easier at the end. And then we've got to be better when we go to South Africa.”

Your next rugby read: Wasteful Edinburgh punished by clinical Connacht as URC season ends with home defeat