Edinburgh's pack put in a memorable shift in the Welsh mud to help Scotland's number one team to climb back to the top of the Magners League with David Blair, making his first start of the season, named man of the match.

Stephen Jones scored a penalty with 12 minutes remaining to set up a nerve-shredding finale at the Parc y Scarlets, but Edinburgh's growing game management skills once again shone out. Blair’s thrilling show-and-go carved open the Scarlets defence and paved the way through for replacement Craig Hamilton to slide over from close range.

Straight after that, Scarlets replacement Josh Turnbull was yellow-carded for a horrific tackle on Nick De Luca while he was still in the air and Edinburgh took full advantage to close off the game. The fans who bravely made the trip to west Wales deserve special praise - the players and Scrum V TV audience heard your cheers of support throughout the match.

Lee Williams scored in the corner to give Scarlets a three-point lead on the 51-minute mark, but there was still plenty to play for. After a period of concerted pressure with Edinburgh camped out on the Scarlets line, scrum half Greig Laidlaw leaped over a pile of bodies to score a try and Chris Paterson added the extras to give Edinburgh the lead for the first time in the match. 

In the first half, Richie Pugh scored a try for Scarlets on the half-hour mark in a closely-fought match. To begin with, Edinburgh were guilty of a clumsy start in the Welsh rain at Parc y Scarlets and went behind when Roddy Grant was penalised for holding on after being on the receiving end of a huge hit from Iestyn Thomas inside the opening two minutes. The penalty was comfortably kicked by Rhys Priestland. But Blair then nailed a well-taken drop-goal to level the scores five minutes later.

A breathless match played in energy-sapping conditions, every time Edinburgh progressed deep into opponents’ territory, the Scarlets cleared their lines. But Edinburgh kept plugging away in the persistent rain and deservedly won with an energetic performance.

The breakdown area was messy in the opening exchanges with neither team securing ball successfully in the rain-soaked conditions.

Edinburgh’s best early passage of play was started when Nick De Luca initiated a smart counter attack. The Scotland centre side-stepped two Scarlets players before he was tap-tackled and he off-loaded from off the floor to Paterson.

But Paterson’s exchange of passes with Laidlaw was unjustly deemed to be forward and the exhilarating move was brought to a halt.

De Luca was then penalised for coming in at the side of a ruck, but Priestland’s penalty went wide of the target.

Edinburgh Tries: Laidlaw, Hamilton

Cons: Paterson (2)

DG: Blair

Scarlets: Daniel Evans; Lee Williams, Sean Lamont, Jon Davies, Andy Fenby; Rhys Priestland, Martin Roberts; Iestyn Thomas, Ken Owens, Deacon Manu, Lou Reed, Dominic Day, Simon Easterby, Richie Pugh, David Lyons (capt).
Replacements: Phil John, Emyr Phillips, Vernon Cooper, Josh Turnbull, Tavis Knoyle, Stephen Jones, Gareth Maule.

Edinburgh: C Paterson (capt, Houston), M Robertson (Thompson), B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser, D Blair, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen (Traynor), A Kelly (Ford), G Cross, S Turnbull (Hamilton), S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands (Callam).
Replacements: Ross Ford, Kyle Traynor, Craig Hamilton, David Callam, Ross Samson, John Houston, Jim Thompson.

Referee: Carlo Damasco (Italy)