A late try from wing king Tim Visser wasn't enough to help Edinburgh to a first seasonal win over Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield on Friday night.
The capital club rallied well after a lacklustre first half performance, but left themselves too much to do on a night where Struan Dewar and Alun Walker made their debuts, David Denton his first Magners League start, and Simon Webster his first Magners League start of the season.
A late try from wing king Tim Visser wasn't enough to help Edinburgh to a first seasonal win over Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield on Friday night.
The capital club rallied well after a lacklustre first half performance, but left themselves too much to do on a night where Struan Dewar and Alun Walker made their debuts, David Denton his first Magners League start, and Simon Webster his first Magners League start of the season.
Interim head coach Nick Scrivener said: "I was pleased with the way we dug in, but frustrated that we put ourselves in a position where we had to, and disappointed that we've come away with another loss.
"A number of players showed up well, with Lewis Niven in particular carrying the ball and giving us more stability in the scrum. But we're still being too imprecise at key moments and that's going to keep costing us until we sort it out. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us, and we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to dig deep, show our mettle, and finish the season strongly."
On a clear, crisp evening at Murrayfield, Edinburgh made a lively start to the game, Webster in particular bursting forth from the traps with the vigour of a man whose energy hasn't had much of an outlet in the last couple of years.
It was Cardiff, however, who created the first real scoring opportunity of the evening, Martyn Williams dancing into space down the left before passing inside to Leigh Halfpenny and giving the winger clear sight of the line. Fortunately he knocked on and the chance was gone.
The Blues kept targetting the same touchline, and, after great footwork from Halfpenny, fellow wideman Richard Mustoe sought to dot down in the corner, only for Webster to appear on the scene and heroically bundle him into touch.
After a couple of early alarms in the scrum, not to mention free-kicks for early engagement, Edinburgh's set-piece game settled down as they gradually established a better foothold in the match. Cardiff's physicality was still causing problems, though, with the home side falling off a number of first-up tackles.
Edinburgh passed up the chance to get themselves onto the scoreboard first, David Blair's 25th-minute penalty drifting marginally wide from out left after Cardiff were pulled up for not rolling away.
Almost immediately, Halfpenny showed the home stand-off the way, slotting the ball confidently between the sticks as referee David Wilkinson spotted an Edinburgh hand in the ruck.
With five minutes to go until the interval, Cardiff delivered the first try of a largely stodgy opening period. Having set-up camp on the Edinburgh line to increasingly ominous effect, they broke right in the shape of full-back Chris Czekaj who crossed to give Halfpenny an easy conversion.
Scrivener's men got themselves down the other end before half-time, but were frustrated by Wilkinson's whistle, a frustratingly frequent accompaniment to the fare.
HALF-TIME: EDINBURGH 0 BLUES 10
It was perhaps indicative of the tone of the interval dialogue in the Edinburgh dressing room that the home side turned round in sprightly fashion, immediately looking to take the game to Cardiff via big ball carriers like Netani Talei and David Denton, who hadn't managed to get on the front foot during the opening period.
Straight, hard running from Ben Cairns drew a Blues offside, and Blair landed Edinburgh's first points from a position marginally right of centre just behind the 22m line.
This good work was undone by a further bout of indiscipline shortly afterwards, Edinburgh again found guilty of using hands in the ruck and Halfpenny duly knocking over another three-pointer from bang in front of the posts.
There was further bad news for the men in the black and red in the wake of a Martyn Williams kick ahead. Webster got to the ball first to ground it and earn a 22m dropout, but a minor scuffle in the immediate aftermath saw Edinburgh penalised after Tim Visser shoved a Cardiff player. Halfpenny made no mistake with his kick, putting the Blues 13 points ahead.
Edinburgh badly needed to pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat, and they at least got the home crowd going with a period of pressure that had Visser almost going over in the left-hand corner before Cardiff went offside at a ruck, presenting Blair with an easy penalty chance.
Edinburgh mounted several phases of pressure on the Blues' line in the final five minutes, and were duly rewarded when the flying Dutchman, Visser, crossed the line. Blair's conversion, from the left touch-line, was not successful.
JLP-Photography
Edinburgh: 15 J Thompson; 14 S Webster, 13 B Cairns, 12 J King, 11 T Visser; 10 D Blair, 9 G Laidlaw (captain); 1 L Niven, 2 A Kelly, 3 G Cross, 4 E Lozada, 5 S Turbull, 6 D Denton, 8 N Talei, 7 S Dewar
Substitutes: 16 A Walker, 17 K Traynor, 18 D Young, 19 S MacLeod, 20 S Newlands, 21 R Samson, 22 T Brown, 23 A Turnbull
Cardiff Blues: 15 C Czekaj; 14 L Halfpenny, 13 C Laulala, 12 D Hewitt, 11 R Mustoe; 10 C Sweeney, 9 T Slater; 1 J Yapp, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 3 S Andrews, 4 D Jones, 5 P Tito (captain), 6 M Molitika, 8 X Rush, 7 M Williams
Substitutes: 16 G Williams, 17 S Hobbs, 18 F Filise, 19 M Paterson, 20 A Pretorius, 21 T Rowlands, 22 G Davies, 23 G Evans
Referee: David Wilkinson (IRFU)
