Edinburgh 10 Leicester Tigers 11
At The Greenyards, Melrose.
Replacement scrum-half David Mele landed a penalty with the final kick of the match as Leicester Tigers edged an attritional victory away against Edinburgh.
Despite being the better side for the opening hour, Tigers looked like they were going to have to take a second pre-season defeat on the chin as the home side came back from an 8-0 deficit to take a 10-8 lead into the closing stages.
But Mele, who had come on for skipper Ben Youngs, stepped up to stroke home a 35-metre penalty with time expired to win the game.
Tigers made a solid early start but Youngs' knock on at the back of a ruck ended some decent possession in the Edinburgh 22.
They opened the scoring on 10 minutes though after some lovely continuity in the build up.
Freddie Burns, Niall Morris and Geoff Parling were all involved in the move and quick recycled ball allowed Niki Goneva to feed Logo Mulipola who wrestled over the line from five metres out.
Burns missed the conversion and former Tigers Academy graduate Greig Tonks missed a penalty at the other end as a physical gain line battle ensued.
There was a worrying sight of Geoff Parling leaving the field with what appeared to be a shoulder injury after making a big hit after just 13 minutes.
Tigers were dominating possession and territory but the hosts were showing up well in defence and double-teaming on tackles with great success.
Burns bagged his first points in a Leicester shirt from in front of the posts on 29 minutes to make it 8-0 and Tigers stayed on top for the next 10 minutes without adding to their score.
Burns looked confident with a couple of dinky chips and one superb free-kick down the line for a five-metre line-out.
But Tigers struggled to get pressure on the Edinburgh set piece and a couple of stolen line-outs near the end of the half allowed Edinburgh to build pressure for the first time.
It looked like that had ended when Goneva intercepted Tonks' pass five metres from his own line and was off to the races until he was ruled offside and play was called back.
From the resulting play, the Scots peeled off the back of a line-out and Roddy Grant crashed over. Tonks' conversion pulled the gap back to a single point at the interval.
Burns got better and better as the second half got underway. A huge hit in midfield led to a turnover and then a wonderful catch at full stretch was followed by a grubber kick, which put Goneva in for a try. Again though, it was ruled out for a marginal offside.
Tom Croft was then nearly through before a tap-tackle stopped him sprinting in for the score.
Edinburgh looked at their best when play was tight. A rolling maul gained 15 metres at one stage and their bread and butter of the set piece remained solid despite a host of second-half changes.
Tigers made their own substitutions with the likes of Mele, Fraser Balmain and Jordan Crane all coming on before the hour mark.
Tigers chose to kick for goal when they won a 61st-minute penalty but Burns shoved his effort wide of the post.
The former Gloucester man then left the field favouring his right leg and Seremaia Bai filled the fly-half role for the final 15 minutes.
With heavy rain now making handling difficult, the game descended into kick tennis. Though there was time for former Bath fly-half Tom Heathcote to miss a 35-metre penalty that would have put Edinburgh ahead for the first time in the game.
Seven minutes later, Heathcote had another chance from almost exactly the same place and this time, made no mistake to put Edinburgh 10-8 ahead.
Tigers huffed and puffed in a disappointing final quarter but they had lost their momentum by now and Goneva being held up for a choke tackle near the end summed up their late efforts.
But Tigers won a penalty at the death in the scrum and replacement scrum-half Mele stepped up to stroke the ball over the posts from 35 metres out.