Edinburgh claimed back-to-back Magners League wins for the first time since last November and made it three home victories in a row by beating Dragons in fine style at Murrayfield on Friday night.
Against a side whom they had previously failed to see off in two years, Nick Scrivener's men were busy, productive and daring from the off and gave a vocal capital support something to cherish in what was the club's final home game of the season.
Tries from Greig Laidlaw, Chris Paterson and, inevitably, Tim Visser put the seal on a fine collective performance for which Kyle Traynor, Scott MacLeod and Stuart McInally helped lay the foundations with great individual shifts up front.
Edinburgh will now seek to end their campaign on another high when they take on Benetton Treviso in northern Italy on Friday 6 May.
Interim head coach Scrivener, whose last home match this was before a summer return to Australia, praised his men's attitude and execution, saying: "We've had a pretty poor record of late against Dragons, and you could see from the start that we were desperate to rectify that.
"We wanted to make a really fast, positive opening to the match, something that would set the tone, and the boys certainly delivered on that front.
"I'm delighted we've been able to give the fans a couple of good wins to finish off with at Murrayfield, because it's been an up and down year on the field and they deserve huge praise for sticking by us.
"Now it's about taking this good form into the Treviso match and winning away from home, something that's not been easy for us over the season."
As was the case last week against Aironi, Edinburgh made a strong start to the game, winning a penalty inside a minute as Dragons were pulled up for crossing. Paterson, on his return to the starting line-up, stepped up to slot over the kick with the minimum of fuss.
Both teams were intent on playing the game in an adventurous style, which gave a healthy crowd plenty to get excited about. Edinburgh, in particular, kept the ball alive with a series of offloads which brought to mind their form in the first half of the home Heineken Cup match against Northampton, half-backs Mike Blair and Laidlaw and that man Visser once more to the fore.
The winger got the crowd on their feet by threatening the first score of the game some 14 minutes in. After breaking through the first line of Welsh cover, the Dutchman kicked ahead and set off on a foot race against the last Dragons defender. The visitors breathed a huge sigh of relief as they got the ball down just before Visser could apply a finishing touch.
Edinburgh were made to rue this near thing not being quite near enough as, with virtually their first meaningful attack of the game, Dragons got themselves over the line.
Stand-off Jason Tovey, a persistent thorn in Edinburgh's side in their defeat at Rodney Parade in February, was allowed to meander across the pitch between defenders, and duly spotted Aled Brew crashing through on an excellent line to his left. The winger flew on to complete the try, before Tovey knocked over a simple conversion.
To Edinburgh's immense credit, they hit back with immediate effect, establishing excellent field position close to the dragons line, whereupon Laidlaw showed an impressive turn of pace to burn the last line of cover and dot down. Paterson knocked over a challenging conversion, and minutes later landed a penalty after Dragons were pinged for holding on.
HALF-TIME: EDINBURGH 13-7 DRAGONS
It was imperative that Edinburgh maintained this momentum in what always had the makings of a crucial third quarter.
Within eight minutes of the restart, they had landed a second try, Laidlaw exploiting a penalty advantage to the full by charging at the heart of the Dragons rearguard before finding Visser with an incisive inside ball.
The Dutchman cantered to the line for try number 14 of his record-breaking Magners League campaign. Paterson nudged over the conversion to give the hosts a 13-point advantage.
This pair, Paterson and Visser, were evidently keen to be in the thick of the action, and minutes later they combined to give Edinburgh a third try. Visser again made tremendous ground with a bullocking run, and although he was pulled up just short, Paterson showed great anticipation to pop up on his shoulder and finish off the move. The full-back converted his own score to keep the home support on their feet.
Dragons were barely in the game as an attacking force at this stage, but clawed back some of the deficit with an opportunistic score. The ball was kicked in behind Visser on the left, and bounced kindly for visiting full-back Adam Hughes to dot down. With Tovey having knocked over a penalty shortly before, the score was now 27-15 to Edinburgh.
In spookily similar circumstances to the Aironi match, Edinburgh lost Esteban Lozada to the sin bin, the lock yellow carded along with Dragons second row Andrew Coombs following a coming together on the west stand touchline.
The match ended in frantic fashion with Edinburgh trying to run from deep to counter an attack from the visitors, but the home side held out to land that third consecutive home win.
Magners Man of the Match: Tim Visser (Edinburgh)
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson; 14 Simon Webster, 13 Jim Thompson, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Tim Visser; 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair; 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Andrew Kelly (captain), 3 Geoff Cross, 4 Scott MacLeod, 5 Esteban Lozada, 6 Stuart McInally, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 David Denton
Substitutes: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Lewis Niven, 18 Robin Hislop, 19 Steven Turnbull, 20 Scott Newlands, 21 David Blair, 22 Lee Jones, 23 Tom Brown
Dragons: 15 Adam Hughes; 14 Matthew Pewtner, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Ashley Smith (captain), 11 Aled Brew; 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Jon Evans; 1 Hugh Gustafson, 2 Steve Jones, 3 Dan Way, 4 Andrew Coombs, 5 Adam Jones, 6 Dan Lydiate, 7 Gavin Thomas, 8 Joe Bearman
Substitutes: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Phil Price, 18 Ben Castle, 19 Lewis Evans, 20 Toby Faletau, 21 Matthew Watkins, 22 Wayne Evans, 23 Matthew Jones
Ref: David Wilkinson (IRFU)
