Chris Paterson was given the best possible send-off with a win and a try as Edinburgh thrashed Treviso 44-21 at Murrayfield.
The game may have been somewhat of a dead rubber with Edinburgh destined to finish second from bottom regardless of the result and Treviso lingering just two places above them, but the hosts were determined to finish an up and down season with a flourish and give Chris Paterson a winning send-off.
Scotland's record cap-holder and points-scorer was playing in his last ever professional game and it was fitting that he should bow out at Murrayfield with a win and a try to cap it all off.
Edinburgh have never lost to Italian opposition on home soil and Treviso, who fielded an all Italian line-up and have managed just one win in this calendar year, never really looked in too much danger of altering that record.
Captain Greig Laidlaw got the home side up and running early on with a penalty inside the opening five minutes and the Scotland fly-half created the first try of the game ten minutes later as well with an excellent delayed pass to put David Denton through a hole to score.
It has been a breakthrough season for Laidlaw and his influence has grown throughout it. He continued his good form in this match and, after adding another penalty, he went over himself for Edinburgh's second try as he threw a convincing dummy and no-one got near him.
Treviso were not helped by a yellow card for flanker Alessandro Zanni prior to Laidlaw's try but they responded well to score a late try of their own through centre Tommaso Benvenuti.
Laidlaw predictably had the final say of the half though with another successful penalty to make it 23-7 at the break.
The Italians didn't give up the ghost in the second half either and, after being reduced to fourteen men again thanks to a deliberate knock-on by replacement winger Brendan Williams, they scored again through Ludovico Nitoglia who took advantage of some space around the edges of a ruck.
Just as Treviso looked like they might have a faint hope of getting back into the match though, up stepped the man of the moment Paterson. The 34-year-old rolled back the years to race onto a chip ahead and touch down, prompting the Murrayfield crowd to erupt and rise to salute their outgoing hero with a standing ovation.
Anything after Paterson's try was always likely to be academic in the grand scheme of things but Edoardo Gori did briefly reduce the deficit for the visitors before Edinburgh's own flying machine Tim Visser ran in his 13th try of a disappointing league campaign for the hosts and Kyle Traynor added some extra gloss late on.
Regardless of their lowly 11th place finish, the Murrayfield faithful ended the season with smiles on their faces after a fantastic Heineken Cup run, an emphatic win in their final league encounter and a try from a departing hero to cap it all off.
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Denton, Laidlaw, Paterson, Visser, Traynor
Cons: Laidlaw 5
Pens: Laidlaw 3
For Treviso:
Tries: Benvenuti, Nitoglia, Gori
Cons: Burton 3
Yellow cards: Zanni, Williams (both Treviso)
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Tom Brown, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw (capt), 9 Chris Leck, 8 Roddy Grant, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 David Denton, 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Steven Turnbull, 20 Alan MacDonald, 21 Alex Black, 22 Harry Leonard, 23 Phil Godman.
Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Edoardo Gori, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 4 Valerio Bernaḅ, 3 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Franco Sbaraglini (capt), 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Enrico Ceccato, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Gonzalo Padṛ, 20 Marco Filippucci, 21 Simon Picone, 22 Tommaso Iannone, 23 Brendan Williams.
Referee: Mark Patton
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