SEVEN wins from ten starts, including five on the bounce; it looks like Edinburgh have started to turn a corner in terms of results. Richard Cockerill, the head coach, is not so sure. Improvements? Yes. The finished article? Nowhere near.

"We’ve done all right," he said. "We’ve won five games, but the sides we’ve played over the last five weeks are not the very best teams. Ospreys are a very good side when they are fully loaded, but let’s get some sense on it. We played Zebre London Irish, Krasny Yar, Treviso and Ospreys when they had a lot of players missing.

"Let’s take the context into account. We should celebrate our progress, but not get too far ahead of ourselves. I’m still cheesed off that we lost to Treviso here.

"We’ve just got to keep working. I said at the start that I don’t know where we’re going to end up; 10 games in and I still don’t know. Professional sport can be pretty cruel."

Statistically it is hard to argue that there has been progress. They have won five from eight in the Guinness PRO14 and two from two in the European Challenge Cup; this time last year they had three league wins and two in Europe. So, some progress but not as huge as it might look at first glance.

Look deeper into the numbers and they seem to be scoring at about the same rate – 170 points in the league this season compared with 172 at the same stage 12 months ago – but have made big strides in defence where the number of tries conceded has dropped from 21 to 14.

The result is that while a year ago they were part of a closely matched bottom five in the league, they are currently fourth in their conference but only four points off a spot in the top three, which would bring a play-off place were they able to get there.

"We’re doing okay, we won six games in the league last year," Cockerill added. "As a coaching group, it is going well. As a playing group, we are starting to sort some of the wheat from the chaff.

"Guys are starting to put their hands up and some young players are getting opportunities, which has pushed the older guys to pull their fingers out and get in gear because they are now under pressure for their spots."

The question is whether they can sustain it. What makes direct comparisons tricky, as Cockerill admits, is that the fixture list is front loaded in their favour with a lot of the big-name teams to come late in the season. Even this game against the Ospreys landed in their favour since the Welsh had nine players on international duty while Edinburgh had five.

They have a bit of a gap before heading for a huge test of confidence and stamina in South Africa, where both their opponents will be close to full strength. After that, it is back to Europe before the Festive double-header against Glasgow Warriors.

For all that, they will be going into this crucial period with self-belief at a high after coming through a slow start to pull clear of the Ospreys with sacked former skipper Magnus Bradbury being mobbed by supportive teammates after crashing over in the 81st minute to claim the bonus point try – something of a personal vindication after a tough month when he paid the price for injuring himself while drunk.

"He’s got his head down and worked, to be fair to him," reflected Cockerill. "You saw that when he came on; he wanted to get his hands on the ball, he wanted to carry hard. I’m delighted that he’s put what happened behind him."

In the strange way these things sometimes work out, it may even turn out to be good for both him and the club in the long term. Bradbury has learned a harsh lesson and looks determined to play his way past it; Fraser McKenzie has stepped in as captain and seems to be a natural leader for this group and Cockerill has taken the chance to demonstrate that he won't tolerate any drop in standards.

The way they managed to keep the ball alive through phase after phase was impressive with some of the handling as high class as Edinburgh supporters have seen this decade. One extended period of play saw them go through 36 phases; Bradbury's try came after 16 – impressive stuff.

Before that Blair Kinghorn had set up the attack for the opening try, which he also finished after a clever offload from Cornell Du Preez, and also made the running for the second with James Johnstone, the centre, involved twice and Nathan Fowles, the scrum half, finishing.

Jason Tovey finished with 22 points, sauntering over for a solo try when the Ospreys bought his dummy, to add to his kicks.

Scorers:

Edinburgh: Try: Kinghorn (29), Fowles (41), Tovey (56), Bradbury (80+1). Cons: Tovey 3. Pens: Tovey (15, 31, 36)

Ospreys: Try: Arhip (11). Con: Davies. Pen: Davies (21)

Scoring sequence (Edinburgh): 0-7, 3-7, 3-10, 10-10, 13-10, 16-10 (half time), 23-10, 30-10, 37-10.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Fife, J Johnstone (C Dean, 63), P Bureligh, T Brown (G Bryce, 38); J Tovey, N Fowles (S Hidalgo-Clyne, 56); M Rizzo (R Sutherland, 63), N Cochrane (C Fenton, 58), S Berghan (M McCallum, 66), F McKenzie (c) (L Carmichael, 63), G Gilchrist (F McKenzie, 78), L Crosbie, J Ritchie (M Bradbury, 63), C du Preez.

Ospreys: D Evans; D Howells, J Hook, A Beck (K Fonotia, 66), T Habberfield (L Price, 71); S Davies, B Leonard (sin bin: 31-41, R Morgan-Williams, 56); P James (C) (G Thomas, 52), S Baldwin (S Parry, 67), D Arhip (M Fia, 52), L Ashley (R Thornton, 67), B Davies, O Cracknell, G Mercer, R McCusker (J King, 45).

Referee: A Brace (Ireland)

Attendance: 3,793