SO NEAR, yet so far. Edinburgh nearly pulled out a miracle escape to start the Richard Cockerill era with what would have been an impressive win, but though they got the ball over the line in the final drive, they could not get it down.

In the end, justice was probably done. They did lose the try count four-two and the defence and discipline were a struggle for large parts of the game, but the players who got their chance after half time did give them reasons to hope that there may be a bringer future.

"It's a start," said Cockerill afterwards. "We can see the intent from the guys and the mentality. When we swerve decisive, we did some damage. Sale are a good side.

"We have spoken about respect and credibility – it was a step in the right direction, but the first step on a very long journey.

"I am frustrated that we did not win. There were some good performances from the young players but it showed that we had worked hard on our physical prowess and our mentality. For us to stay in the battle under pressure was really and and in the end we were six inches from winning."

All that remembering that, it was a preseason friendly; not only that but one where the two sides were clearly at radically different stages in their preparations.

Edinburgh were without most of the players who toured with Scotland in the summer, Sale were close to full strength, including some faces familiar to Scotland fans in Josh Strauss, the former Glasgow Warriors No8, and Byron McGuigan, the Scotland sevens cap.

Cockerill, had picked as familar a starting XV as he could, allowing for unavailability and injury, including six of those who will be training under Gregor Townsend with the national squad in St Andrews next week. Anton Bresler and Phil Burleigh, the two surprise overseas selections, were there alongside Darcy Graham, the exciting young Hawick wing.

It was the old heads however, who got Edinburgh going, with Burleigh – who did enough to show why Townsend wants a look at him in a Test setup – forcing an early penalty that Duncan Weir, still out in the cold in international terms, kicked.

Discipline, however was an issue with a string of penalties allowing Sale to build the pressure, and there were far too many passes missing their target. As a result, the Scots struggled to build on their start and gave away a soft try to Faf De Klerk, the scrum half when nobody was defending close to a ruck on the home line.

The second try was simplicity itself as Sale forced a scrum five and a long cutout pass to McGuigan caught the home backs napping and handed him the score.

There were flashes from Edinburgh but they needed to sustain the pressure more as chances went begging and they could only manage a second Weir penalty.

It all changed dramatically when Edinburgh made 11 changes at half time, bringing on a load of youngsters who had something to prove.

Suddenly the passes started to stick and Blair Kinghorn cut a perfect line to put Dougie Fife, the wing, in for the opening home try. Seconds from the restart, it was soon looking even more positive as the forwards drove a scrum over the line and won a penalty try when Sale stopped it illegally.

By now Sale were also making wholesale changes so that neither side bore any resemblance to the starting XVs and their forwards started to make ground withTJ Ioane, who had come on for Strauss, being driven over at the back of a maul before Andrey Ostrikov, the lock, barged over to restore the English lead.

By now Sale had also brought on their replacements – Edinburgh had 19, they had 12 – making the scoreline even more irrelevant, though the final say nearly went to Edinburgh as they drove a line out maul, only to come away scoreless. Defeated but not broken.