Nevertheless there were plenty of positive signs to emerge from Edinburgh’s third game of the new campaign and captain Ben Meyer deservedly scooped the man-of-the-match award with a commanding presence.

After a minute’s applause to mark the untimely passing of Lions and Scotland great Bruce Hay, Edinburgh produced a performance that the fearless Boroughmuir and Liberton full-back would have been proud of.

Ospreys’ physicality caused a few early problems, but Edinburgh soon managed to force some errors and impose their gameplan on the match.

Some quick ball enabled Edinburgh to punch an early hole in Ospreys’ defence, but the Welsh side managed to halt the home team’s momentum.

That resilience translated into an early penalty successfully taken by Ospreys’ fly-half Shaun Connor.

But some pressure from Edinburgh led to an offside decision against Filo Tiatia on Ben Meyer and Phil Godman ensured the hosts restored parity.

And the local born stand-off as inches away from handing Edinburgh the lead minutes later, but on this occasion his penalty rattled against the posts.

However Connor then suffered the same fate when his penalty drifted wide and a promising attacking move from Ospreys broke down after a forward pass.

Edinburgh then moved up a gear and a breathtaking break culminated in centre Ben Cairns being held up a metre short of the line.

But Ospreys were punished by referee Peter Fitzgibbon for illegal play at the breakdown and winger Jonathan Vaughton was subsequently yellow-carded.

From the resultant set piece, Edinburgh assembled a useful driving maul and powered over the line with Argentine summer signing Augusto Allori scoring the try.

Godman then made amends for his earlier miss by nailing the conversion by the touchline to put Edinburgh into the lead.

Connor’s night went increasingly awry when he drifted another penalty wide of the posts and Ospreys were left to rue a gilt-edged opportunity when they slipped up deep in Edinburgh territory.

Then right on the stroke of half-time Godman sent another perfectly-executed penalty sailed through to give Edinburgh a 13-3 half-time advantage.

After the interval, Edinburgh survived a few scares and could have extended their lead if Andrew Kelly’s off-load had managed to find its intended destination.

Just before the 50-minute mark, Nick De Luca burst through and ripped open Ospreys’ defence, but the try never materialised.

Then Ospreys’ replacement Gareth Owen gave the visitors a glimmer of hope with a penalty before Godman narrowly missed his fourth attempt at goal.

Ospreys then forced their way back into the game when swashbuckling No8 Filo Tiatia surged down the right-hand side unchallenged and then off-loaded to Vaughanton who touched down.

Owen then kicked the extras to set up a grandstand finish with the scoreline level and he had an opportunity to seal a last-gasp win but he miscued his kick at goal.  

Edinburgh: Nick De Luca, Andrew Turnbull, Ben Cairns, John Houston, Andrew Maxwell, Phil Godman, Ben Meyer (capt), Augusto Allori, Andrew Kelly, Geoff Cross, Craig Hamilton, Ben Gissing, Matt Mustchin, Ross Rennie, Roland Reid.
Replacements: Steven Lawrie, Ryan Grant, Fergus Pringle, Scott Newlands, Greig Laidlaw, Alistair Warnock, Matt Dey.
Ospreys: Stefan Terblanche; Jonathan Vaughton, Mark Taylor, Gavin Henson, Aled Brew; Shaun Connor, Martin Roberts; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Cai Griffiths, Lyndon Bateman, Ian Evans, Tom Smith, Steve Tandy, Filo Tiatia (capt).

Replacements: Huw Bennett, Andrew Millward, Ian Gough, Ben Lewis, Mike Phillips, Andrew Bishop, Gareth Owen.