Leicester tormented a young Edinburgh side with a ruthlessly efficient display at Welford Road and scored five tries in a decidedly one-sided Heineken Cup match.

Unfortunately on the day Edinburgh's collective inexperience showed against one of the sharpest sides in Europe and had Tigers stand-off Andy Goode been on song then the margin of defeat could have been even greater.

But there were visible signs of improvement in the second half and, despite having both Craig Hamilton and Allan Jacobsen yellow-carded, Edinburgh conceded far fewer points and probed Leicester's defence with some effervescent moves.

Nevertheless Robinson's young team will have learned some valuable lessons about game management and handling the referee in a white-hot atmosphere. Welford Road, like Musgrave Park weeks beforehand, was packed and Edinburgh's players need to acknowledge that 50/50 decisions will not lean in their favour.

Leicester's 22 contained a constellation of stars, World Cup winners and foreign imports as opposed to Edinburgh's line-up with an average age of just over 25 and only a handful with Test match experience. As head coach Robinson predicted, it is going to be a steep learning curve, but there were glimpses of quality; most notably the performance of promising centre Nick De Luca.

Edinburgh suffered a nightmare start to their Heineken Cup Pool Six match at England’s double winners, Leicester Tigers and were trailing 17-0 after only 17 minutes had lapsed.

In actual fact, the margin could have been greater had Tigers’ stand-off Andy Goode worn his shooting boots; the England international missed three straightforward penalties.

Edinburgh began tentatively and went behind when rookie stand-off David Blair’s attempted clearing kick was charged down by Goode, who proceeded to dot down underneath the posts.

Leicester’s second try arrived when Edinburgh’s defence were badly burnt by the searing pace of Tigers’ wing Tom Varndell who touched down in the corner on the 15-minute mark.

After the early set-backs, Edinburgh then started to gradually get into the match and should have got off the mark when an enterprising move involving the back division almost resulted in a breakthrough try.

But full-back Hugo Southwell’s chip was expertly read by the Leicester defence and the chance was lost.

Another Goode penalty was followed by a stoppage time by darting full-back Geordan Murphy who side-stepped his way across the whitewash to heighten Edinburgh’s genuine sense of woe.

After the break, Leicester cranked up the pressure even further and were rewarded with a penalty try after Edinburgh crumbled beside the posts and Goode added the extras.

Even with a mountain to climb, Edinburgh toiled away honestly until the full-time whistle sounded and deserved to score at least one try during the game.  

Right at the death Martin Corry crashed over from close range to seal a heavy win for the home side.

15 Hugo Southwell
 
14 Andrew Turnbull
13 Ben Cairns
12 Nick De Luca
11 John Houston
 
10 David Blair* (Godman 40)
9 Mike Blair
 
1 Allan Jacobsen
2 Ross Ford (Kelly 45)
3 Gavin Kerr (Smith 45)
4 Craig Hamilton (yellow carded 50)
5 Ben Gissing
6 Simon Cross (Rennie)
7 Allister Hogg (captain)
8 David Callam
 
Substitutes: Andrew Kelly, Craig Smith, Matt Mustchin, Ross Rennie, Ben Meyer, Phil Godman, Andrew Maxwell

*= Member of Scottish Rugby’s Senior National Academy