Edinburgh's season of near-misses continues with Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Bordeaux Begles

• Bordeaux Begles 23 Edinburgh 14

Edinburgh were, yet again, the nearly men. This time, however, after ten minutes of fatal stage fright there was no choking, no collective failure to rise to the challenge. Instead, they nearly pulled off a remarkable coup on France's Atlantic seaboard.

Ten minutes into this Challenge Cup quarter-final, it looked as if the height of ambition for Richard Cockerill's depleted side was to avoid complete humiliation against arguably the best side in France. The rot started after three minutes, and six minutes later the home side stretched their lead to fourteen points. Edinburgh were making so many mistakes that they could barely keep the ball, and it looked as if they would be on the wrong side of an avalanche of points. On the sidelines, an unusually quiet Cockerill looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

At that stage, with Les Girondins pounding the visitors' line, respectability looked like a lofty aim. Yet Edinburgh played with the sort of character and resolve that was missing from their recent defeats against both Ulster and Glasgow, Darcy Graham typifying their determination when he set up one of the most remarkable tries this old stadium has ever witnessed. Nor as he alone; this was a team effort. To come back from such a train crash start was little short of miraculous.

Yet that is exactly what happened. Gradually the home side dug in. First of all they stopped the slide, and although Bordeaux had 67 per cent of first half possession, they failed to add to their initial flurry of points. Indeed, not only did Edinburgh manage to stop their rapid descent – although at times it looked like a close run thing – but they even managed to strike a blow for the virtue of pure bloodymindedness, the metronomic Jaco van der Walt slotting over a penalty shortly before the break.

Bordeaux's first try encapsulated all that was wrong about Edinburgh's first half at the Stade Chaban Delmas. James Johnstone showed ambition in midfield and was trying to put Blair Kinghorn into space when he was hit hard by UJ Seutini, the Aussie inside centre simultaneously stripping the ball, springing to his feet and feeding wing Santiago Cordero outside him. For a player of Cordero's speed, outpacing the cover defence was a formality, the Argentine wing going over and Mathieu Jalibert converting to put the home side 7-0 up after just three minutes.

A bad start soon became worse as another Edinburgh mistake gifted Bordeaux field position, Charlie Shiel dropping a simple catch to give the home side a scrum on their 22. The Frenchmen took full advantage, their pack shunting Edinburgh backwards at a rate of knots before scrum-half Yann Lesgourges fed Jalibert, who took the tackle and offloaded for centre Jean-Baptiste Dubie to crash over under the posts. With less than ten minutes on the clock, Richard Cockerill's men were 14 points behind, with every one of those points stemming from their own inaccuracy.

At this stage Edinburgh looked shellshocked, and Bordeaux prematurely triumphant. But little by little the tide turned. Van der Walt's penalty was the start, but after the break, no doubt galvanised by the pithy thoughts of Chairman Cockerill, they were more direct, more urgent, more intense. The error count went down, they finally started to move Bordeaux's big men around and they gradually spent more time in the home side's half, even if holding onto possession proved difficult in the face of some determined counter-rucking.

Van der Walt's second penalty after 45 minutes brought it back to 14-6 before a Jalibert penalty restored the French side's lead. But when, after 52 minutes, Darcy Graham beat three French defenders in a space the size of a telephone box, at one stage dropping the ball before getting to his feet and then offloading to Damian Hoyland as he was bundled into touch, the game was on. Hoyland managed to wrestle his way over from close range, to bring Edinburgh within a converted try of the lead.

It was a stunning reversal of fortunes, and one which saw the balance of the game change. Jalibert and Blair Kinghorn traded penalties, but when prop Ben Tameifuna was yellow-carded for deliberately stopping Edinburgh on the Bordeaux line, it was the Scots who looked most likely to prevail.

Yet games at this level are about small margins, and when Hamish Watson knocked on with the line at his mercy, and Bordeaux cleared, the pendulum had swung. The home side worked their way down the pitch and as an increasingly desperate Edinburgh tried to run out from under their own posts, replacement scrum-half Maxime Lucu was able to kick a penalty with seconds remaining which put Bordeaux clear.

The relief with which his kick was greeted said it all. Edinburgh's poor start may have given them too steep a climb, but for once they had not frozen on the big stage.

Match details

Bordeaux Begles: N Ducinq; S Cordero, J-B Dubie, UJ Seutini (P Uberti. 65), B Lam; M Jalibert (B Botica, 67), Y Lesgourgues (M Lucu, 42); J Poirot (L Kaulashvili, 47), C Maynadier (J Dweba, 47), V Cobilas (B Tameifuna, 47), K Douglas (C Cazeaux, 42), J Marais, M Diaby (C Woki, 47), G Petti, H Tauleigne.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Graham, J Johnstone, G Taylor (C Dean 61), D Hoyland; J van der Walt, C Shiel; P Schoeman (R Sutherland, 60), S McInally (capt (M Willemse, 60)), S Berghan (M McCallum, 60), B Toolis (A Davidson, 60), G Gilchrist, J Ritchie (M Bradbury, 60), H Watson, V Mata (N Haining, 34).

Referee: F Murphy (Ire)

Scorers: try Cordero 5-0; conv Jalibert 7-0; try Dubie 12-0; conv Jalibert 14-0; pen Van der Walt 14-3; pen Van der Walt 14-6; pen Jalibert 17-6; try Hoyland 17-11; pen Jalibert 20-11; pen Kinghorn 20-14; pen Lucu 23-14.