| Edinburgh: (7) 43 |
| Attempt: Goossen, van der Merwe, Curry, Schoeman, Bennett, Mata. Cons: healy 5 pen: healy |
| scarlet: (15) 18 |
| Attempt: Rogers, G. Davis Cons: costellow pen: costellow 2 |
A strong second-half performance gave Edinburgh a comfortable victory over the Scarlets and boosted their hopes of a top-eight finish in the United Rugby Championship.
Tries from Tom Rodgers and Gareth Davies and a touchdown from the hosts' Wes Goosen gave the Scarlets a 15-7 lead at half-time.
Duan van der Merwe, Matt Curry, Pierre Schuman, Mark Bennett and Bill Mata scored tries as the hosts finished eighth with 43 wins and 18 losses. The Scarlets remain in 14th place.
With only three URC wins all season, the Scarlets' hopes of making the playoffs long ago disappeared, but the Scarlets initiated a clever overhead basketball pass from the brighter Vaea Fifita, forcing Rodgers to play cover defense in a contest for the corners. Gave space to break.
Goosen tried to energize Edinburgh with several heavy breaks, but it was a fine show-and-go from the fleet-footed full-back that resulted in the home side's first try.
The Scarlets fought back with a penalty from Sam Costelow and benefited from some sloppy Edinburgh play as Ali Price charged a box-kick and Davies picked up the loose ball and scored.
Van der Merwe was a peripheral presence in the first half, but latched on to a nicely disguised pass from Price early in the second period and sliced through the Scarlets defense unscathed. Healy beat the extras to bring the home team within one point.
The fly-half kicked a penalty to put his team ahead, but Costelow responded at the other end to give Wales an 18-17 lead.
Despite appearing to have little to play, the Scarlets heroically held their line until they eventually ran out of men and Curry ran under the posts.
One of Edinburgh's problems this season has been the lack of bonus points, but Schumann scored his fourth try from close range, his second in the league this season.
The home side were on their toes and Bennett sprinted from inside their own half to score their fifth try.
A great move involving substitutes Chris Dean and Conor Boyle culminated with Mata scoring his sixth and final goal, capping off a positive night for Edinburgh that kept them in the play-off places.
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt: “The second half was satisfying because it was all about what we talked about during the week. We talked about our discipline and it improved a lot. We only gave away two penalties in the first half. But I think we only had three in the second half, so I think that helped us.''When we were able to get within 22 points in the second half, our players were patient with the ball. If you do well, you can easily win the match. ”
Edinburgh: Goossen, Currie, Bennett, Lang, van der Merwe, Healy, Price, Venter, Cherry, Sebastian, Hodgson, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Crosby, Mata.
Replacement: Dean of Lang (67), Steele of van der Merwe (73), Veracott of Price (59), Schoeman of Venter (39), Ashman of Cherry (39), Nell of Sebastian (39), Sykes of Hodgson. (56), Boyle of Crosby (67).
scarlet: Lloyd, Rogers, J. Williams, James, Lewis, Costelow, G. Davis, Matthias, Elias, Wainwright, Craig, Lucy, Plumtree, D. Davis, Fifita.
Replacement: Conbier (67) for Rogers, D. Jones (73) for Costelow, A. Hughes (73) for G. Davis, W. Jones (53) for Mathias, S. Evans (67) for Elias, H. O'Connor Wayne Mr Wright (53), Mr M. Jones (Mr Craig) (69) and Mr Tuipulotu (Mr Plumtree) (65).
