Edinburgh slipped to a massively disappointing last-day defeat to Benetton Treviso in the Stadio di Monigo on Friday night, ending interim head coach Nick Scrivener's reign in underwhelming fashion.
Failing to build on the many positives from their recent home wins over Ospreys, Aironi and Dragons, the Scots couldn't match Treviso's physicality and aggression at the set-piece and breakdown, and never looked like claiming a fourth success in five matches.
It was a bitterly frustrating way to conclude their Magners League campaign, and scant reward for the backing provided by a healthy knot of Edinburgh supporters in this busy little ground.
Scrivener, who is set to now leave the club and head back to his native Australia, conceded: "We didn't perform anywhere near the standards we've set ourselves in the last couple of months - we just didn't get started and even though we knew they would be targetting us with their power game, we didn't respond in the ways we'd talked about before the match.
"It's a poor way to finish the season, and I'm sorry for the Edinburgh fans who travelled that we didn't do them or ourselves justice. "
A large and vocal Stadio di Monigo welcomed Edinburgh to the field, but the Treviso players were in no mood to be benevolent.
With barely two minutes on the clock, they stormed into the lead as No.8 Paul Derbyshire broke from the base of a scrum to powerful effect. The ball was worked left to onrushing full-back Luke McLean, who beat the cover on the Edinburgh left to go over in the corner.
Stand-off Willem De Waal knocked over the conversion, and soon added a penalty from the Edinburgh 10m line after the away team were pulled up for offside.
Edinburgh had yet to launch an attack of any note, but soon rectified matters by winning a couple of penalties in quick session and getting themselves on the scoreboard through the trusty boot of Chris Paterson.
Buoyed by this turn of events, the Scots then put together a period of concerted pressure, moving the ball at pace from touchline to touchline with Greig Laidlaw, Scott MacLeod and Ross Rennie to the fore. The one thing Edinburgh's play at this juncture lacked was depth, and eventually the ball broke kindly for McLean to batter it to downfield safety.
Edinburgh frustration at not coming away with any reward for their efforts was swiftly exacerbated as a soft penalty concession at scrum time gave De Waal the chance to land another three points from distance.
There followed a spell of pronounced Treviso threat as the hosts set up camp in the Edinburgh half by exploiting the powerful driving play of their front five and the slick hands of the loosies and backs. Scrivener's men looked to have weathered the storm until another set-piece penalty saw De Waal kick sweetly from another central position.
The visitors were desperate to knit together some semblance of sustained possession, but continued to struggle on this front as the game reached the half-hour mark. Paterson at least kept them in touch with a second penalty, this one awarded for Treviso failing to roll away.
Shortly before half-time, Tim Visser popped up in space to pursue a speculative David Blair chip kick over the head of Treviso winger Michele Sepe. The big Dutchman is more than a match for anyone in a foot race, but his Italian counterpart just got there first to avert the danger.
Edinburgh lost scrum-half Greig Laidlaw to injury as the interval whiste approached. The Jed man sustained a blow to the face in the wake of a pick and go, and, despite being able to walk from the field, he was replaced at 9 by Lee Jones.
The capital club had previously been deprived of the services of Stuart McInally, the flanker appearing to be troubled by a foot complaint and seeing Alan MacDonald come on in his stead.
HALF-TIME: BENETTON TREVISO 16 EDINBURGH 6
The second period began in much the same fashion as the first, Treviso immediately into their stride and instantly onto the scoreboard after De Waal knocked over a penalty awarded for Edinburgh coming in at the side.
In a further blow, the Scots saw Steven Turnbull depart injured, with Craig Hamilton lolloping on to pack down beside Scott MacLeod in the boiler house.
Minutes later, Edinburgh suffered a fourth injury, Paterson pulling up winded after a robust collision with Treviso centre Gonzalo Garcia and walking gingerly from the pitch to be replaced at full-back by Jim Thompson.
These disruptions were doing little to assist Edinburgh's attempts to establish some momentum, and theirs continued to be a fitful performance. Around the hour, there were a couple of encouraging moments as Nick De Luca began to hit some better lines, but Treviso remained dominant at the breakdown and unrelentingly physical around the park.
The Italians were still looking ominously sharp when space opened up in front of them, and hit Edinburgh with a quickfire double sucker punch as first McLean glided through to complete a personal brace of tries, and then brought his team close to the visitors' line with another punishing run. This time he was pulled up just short, but Robert Barbieri completed the job from close range.
FULL-TIME: BENETTON TREVISO 31 EDINBURGH 6
Benetton Treviso: 15 Luke McLean; 14 Michele Sepe, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Tommaso Benvenuti; 10 Willem De Waal, 9 Tobias Botes; 1 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 4 Antonio Pavanello (captain), 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 6 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 8 Paul Derbyshire
Substitutes: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Matteo Muccignat, 19 Benjamin Vermaak, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Francesco Minto, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Brendan Williams
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson; 14 Simon Webster, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 James King, 11 Tim Visser; 10 David Blair, 9 Greig Laidlaw; 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Andrew Kelly (captain), 3 Geoff Cross, 4 Scott MacLeod, 5 Steven Turnbull, 6 Stuart McInally, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 David Denton
Substitutes: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Lewis Niven, 18 David Young, 19 Craig Hamilton, 20 Alan MacDonald, 21 Jim Thompson, 22 Lee Jones, 23 Tom Brown
Referee: L Colgan (IRFU)
