Edinburgh slipped to only their second home Magners League defeat of the season on Saturday night as a clinical performance from Scarlets took the Welsh side to a first ever win at Murrayfield.
A wobbly set-piece was once more Edinburgh's undoing, the failure to obtain much in the way of serviceable first phase possession a decisive factor in the loss.
Rob Moffat's men must now dust themselves down quickly ahead of the Heineken Cup trip to Franklin's Gardens to face Northampton Saints on Friday. The capital club were narrowly beaten the last time the sides clashed, in a Murrayfield classic back in October, and travel south knowing they must repeat that effort and then some.
It was bitterly cold as Saturday night's game kicked-off, but the Murrayfield pitch looked in good condition, testament to the efforts of the ground staff since early in the day.
The fare was relatively scrappy in the early stages, neither side really establishing much in the way of a platform from which to launch meaningful attacks.
Scarlets were first onto the scoreboard when stand-off Rhys Priestland knocked over a penalty from 23m after the Edinburgh scrum was pinged.
The hosts looked to have established a foothold when a neatly worked lineout saw Alan MacDonald feed the ball back to Ross Ford for the hooker to dart up the left touchline, but Edinburgh quickly got themselves into trouble and conceded a penalty for offside. Priestland again did the necessary from the tee.
It took a fantastic David Blair break to really get the capital club going, the stand-off beating four men as he drove at the heart of the Scarlets defence. Chris Paterson's attempt to continue the move was picked off by the Welsh, but referee Peter Fitzgibbon called the play back for an earlier offence and the skipper got Edinburgh on the board with a well-struck penalty.
Moffat's troops were still not enjoying as much continuous possession as they would have liked, while Scarlets were still spending too much time im the Edinburgh 22 for the home team's comfort.
There were huge sighs of relief all round Murrayfield when Morgan Stoddart, the visiting full-back, knocked the ball on with the try-line at his mercy, and shortly after Tim Visser was required to pull off a great cover tackle on opposite number Gareth Maule as the winger looked to benefit from a big break from Regan King.
David Blair was again to the fore when Edinburgh next managed to get on the front foot, beating another posse of defenders before shuttling the ball right for Lee Jones to continue the move. The Selkirk man could not, unfortunately, quite get to grips with the ball and in a flash the chance was gone.
Edinburgh did end the opening period on the front foot, Scott MacLeod and Ford making yards with ball in hand and the hosts winning a penalty when Scarlets were adjudged offside. Paterson put the ball between the sticks from a position left of centre 22m out.
HALF-TIME: EDINBURGH 6 SCARLETS 6
Having got themselves back on level terms, Edinburgh immediately surrendered the initiative after the restart, allowing Stoddart to break through for a try in the very first minute of the half. The only saving grace was that Scarlets failed to land the conversion. Priestland was not so forgiving shortly after when Edinburgh were penalised for not releasing the tackled player.
The home team took a little while to recover from this double blow, but managed to get the scoreboard moving again in the 58th minute when Paterson stroked over a penalty after Scarlets were pulled up for offside.
This modicum of positive momentum was quickly wiped out as visiting centre Jon Davies saw off Nick De Luca in midfield and careered to the left corner for Scarlets' second try of the half. Priestland landed the conversion from out on the left touchline to stretch the Welsh team's lead to 12 points.
Edinburgh were nothing if not dogged and eventually got themselves across the whitewash when substitute James King ran straight and hard before finding Paterson, who himself had hit a great line and crossed to great acclaim. The skipper knocked over the conversion to bring Edinburgh to within five points with just under six minutes to play, but there was to be no further twist in the tale.
Edinburgh: C Paterson (captain); L Jones, N De Luca, J Houston, T Visser; D Blair, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, F McKenzie, S McInally, N Talei, A MacDonald
Substitutes: A Kelly, K Traynor, D Young, C Hamilton, S Newlands, G Laidlaw, J King, S Webster
Scarlets: M Stoddart; G Maule, R King, J Davies, S Lamont; R Priestland, T Knoyle; P John, M Rees (captain), S Gardiner, V Cooper, L Reed, J Fa’amatuainu, R Pugh, D Lyons
Substitutes: E Phillips, I Thomas, R Jones, D Welch, B Morgan, M Roberts, S Jones, L Williams
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (IRFU)
Magners Man of the Match: Jon Davies (Scarlets)
