A 77th-minute try from Olly Cracknell converted by Paddy Jackson gave the hosts the win at the Brentford Community Stadium – despite them being down to 14 men after Agustin Creevy’s red card on 57 minutes.

However, Blair was not too downbeat, although he admitted to some frustration at the manner of the loss.

“Sometimes you learn more in defeat than you do in victory,” he told the club website. “We’ve got some inexperienced players in there and we’re going to learn a lot from that.

“It’s frustrating that we’ve lost the game, that we’ve not come away with the victory when we’ve put ourselves in the position to do that. We’ve won some close games as well - and we’ll lose some more close games.”

Blair congratulated Irish for their persistence despite being a man down.

“Fair play to London Irish - they kept going at us after their red card,” he said. “They had a lot of the game. They deserved their win.

“Sometimes when you have a red card, it can galvanise a team as well, and potentially you can relax a little bit thinking that it’s 15 v 14 and you’re six points up.”

Edinburgh Rugby head coach Mike Blair admitted that his side had “learned a lot” from their 21-20 EPCR Challenge Cup Round 3 defeat at the hands of London Irish.