Edinburgh Rugby maintained their spluttering form in the United Rugby Championship in Treviso, but head coach Sean Everitt believes his team is still showing growth despite slipping out of the play-off positions following a painful 21-18 defeat by Benetton. The capital side were floored at the death by the Italians’ hooker Alessandro Izekor, whose last-minute try condemned Edinburgh. The capital outfit led going into the final play of the match but numerically inferior due to centre Mosese Tuipulotu’s red card, they were unable to keep the hosts out. The inconsistency Edinburgh have demonstrated this season in the URC is vexing for their supporters. Just last week, they recorded a famous victory without many of their star players at Munster. But with results elsewhere not going their way, Everitt’s team now sit 11th in the standings and facing a tricky task to finish in the top eight and reach the play-offs. Five regular league matches remain for Edinburgh, at home to Dragons, Sharks and Ulster and away to Zebre and Connacht. They also have Challenge Cup commitments when they take on Lions in the last 16. There is no doubting the quality within the dressing-room but the rollercoaster ride of this season has the potential to end in disappointment. Everitt, however, feels his XV is heading in the right direction. “I’m positive about the growth we’ve shown,” the South African head coach said. “If you take it back to Scarlets [on January 24] and the result and compare it to the team we are now, we’re certainly a better team. I think the guys as a group have become closer. “Today it’s about rugby in really difficult conditions. I’ve got to be proud of how they executed the plan, but we need to be more clinical. “Every game now is like a knock-out game, so we’ve got to learn from this and it’s a good learning today. We’ve got the last 16 and hopefully a quarter final as well coming up in the EPCR [Challenge Cup]. We’ll take the positives out of this, the good fight we showed in this game away from home, and work on our accuracy.” Edinburgh’s tries in Italy came through Ross McCann and Ewan Ashman, while Ross Thompson added eight points from the boot. They looked set to cling on to their slender 18-16 lead with just minutes left on the clock, but their cause was not helped when Tuipulotu was cited for a red card by the TMO for a high tackle on Juan Ignacio Brex. Izekor then stormed up the wing following a Benetton breakaway to spark celebrations in the home end. “The law is quite clear,” Everitt said on Tuipulotu’s dismissal. “You can’t make head contact. It’s a game of small margins. Against quality opposition you’ve got to make sure you’re clinical for the 80 minutes. “I’m really proud of the effort the guys put in, the resilience they showed in sticking to the plan. Unfortunately, it came down to the last five minutes and to concede that try, I’m really gutted for the boys. “We prepared really well, we took a lot of heart out of the Munster game going into this game. Unfortunately, sport can be cruel, and we will have to suck this one up.” Benetton moved above Edinburgh to tenth with this win, while Ulster, Ospreys and Stormers all leapfrogged them with triumphs over Dragons (34-30), Connacht (43-40) and Scarlets (29-17) respectively.