John Houston scored his second try of the Heineken Cup campaign at the RDS but it was not enough to prevent Edinburgh from losing 28-14 at Leinster with Argentine stand-off Felipe Contepomi's boot proving the decisive factor on the night.

In terrible conditions, Edinburgh found themselves chasing the game early on and found themselves with a 15-point margin to chase after half-time following two tries from Leinster forward Keith Gleeson; even though the visitors were level at 3-3 after a few minutes.

After Contempomi had handed Leinster a three-point lead through a penalty, Edinburgh hit back through Phil Godman to level the scores with another penalty; despite the fact that at that point Edinburgh had not even touched the ball.

But after that early glimmer of hope Edinburgh spent the next 15 minutes pegged back into their own 22 as Leinster repeatedly knocked on the door to find an all-important try.

Eventually Leinster struck twice through Keith Gleeson to give the Irish Province the upper hand. 

But after the break, Edinburgh staged yet another spirited comeback and put Leinster on the back-foot.

Some uncharacteristic missed kicks from Godman ( two penalties and one conversion) meant that Edinburgh did not capitalise on their dominance for the opening 12 minutes of the second half.

But Houston's breathtaking try gave the visitors a glimmer of hope. Nevertheless Leinster came back and unfortunately replacement Calum MacRae's first act as an Edinburgh player was to get yellow carded after infringing on a ruck.

Another Contepomi penalty was followed by a Godman penalty before the Edinburgh stand-off was replaced by David Blair, who also struck over a penalty goal to reduce the deficit.

But Contempomi hammered the nail into the coffin of Edinburgh's comeback with a converted try.

Nevertheless there were plenty of promising signs that suggest next Saturday's reunion will be an absolute classic. 

Edinburgh Rugby Club squad to play Leinster at RDS (Friday 7 December, kick-off 8pm)
 
15 Ben Cairns
 
14 Andrew Maxwell

13 Nick De Luca
12 Matt Dey (MacRae)
11 John Houston
 
10 Phil Godman (D. Blair)
9 Mike Blair (captain) (Meyer)
 
1 Allan Jacobsen
2 Ross Ford
3 Gavin Kerr (Allori)
4 Matt Mustchin
5 Ben Gissing
6 Roland Reid
7 Ross Rennie
8 David Callam
 
Substitutes: Andrew Kelly, Augusto Allori, Craig Hamilton, Simon Cross, Ben Meyer, David Blair*, Calum MacRae.
 
*= Member of Scottish Rugby’s Senior National Academy