Edinburgh see off Scarlets

Editor

Edinburgh bounced back from last week's loss with an impressive 20-9 victory over the Scarlets in their PRO12 fixture at Murrayfield.

In contrast this was the Welsh region's second straight defeat as their poor start to the campaign continued with a try-less effort on Friday.

The first half got off to a cagey start with Rhys Patchell and the hugely impressive Duncan Weir kicking the sides into a 6-6 scoreline after 27 minutes.

However, it was Edinburgh who scored two quick-fire tries from Michael Allen and Magnus Bradbury at the end of the half to take a 14-point lead into the interval.

The only score of the second half came from the boot of Patchell, who cut the deficit but he was not able to drag the visitors back into the match as they slipped to a disappointing 20-9 defeat.

Patchell scored the first points of the game in the 12th minute, the 23-year-old notching a penalty following an infringement at the breakdown from John Hardie to establish an early three-point lead.

Edinburgh's Weir responded with a penalty of his own in the 19th minute after Scarlets were penalised at the scrum. The ball went in off the posts to draw the score level at 3-3.

Weir kicked the hosts into a 6-3 lead with a second penalty in the 25th minute following a no-arms tackle from the visitors' David Bulbring.

In the 27th minute, the home side's Grant Gilchrist was penalised for holding on and this gave Patchell a bring parity to the scoreline. The fly-half made no mistake and brought the score to 6-6 with his boot.

Edinburgh's Allen scored the first try of the game in the 33rd minute, Liam Williams failing to gather a chipped ball through from Weir allowing Allen to storm in and score out wide. Weir added the extras brilliantly from the touchline to make the score 13-6.

Scarlets lost Jake Ball to the sin-bin in the 39th minute after he was adjudged to have taken a man in the air from a lineout. A minute later, things went from bad to worse for the Welsh side as Patchell's attempted clearance bounced off an Edinburgh shin and straight to Bradbury to score an easy try. Weir added the extras, making the half-time score 20-6.

Bradbury went from hero to villain after the break as he was sent to the sin-bin for a dangerous tackle after just 43 second-half seconds of the second-half.

Paul Burleigh was sent to the sin-bin for Edinburgh after 53 minutes for using his hands in the ruck. The resulting penalty was dispatched by Patchell, bringing the score to 20-9 which was how it ended.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Tries: Allen, Bradbury
Cons: Weir 2
Pens: Weir 2

For Scarlets:
Pens: Patchell 3

Edinburgh: 15 Glenn Bryce, 14 Michael Allen, 13 Sasa Tofilau, 12 Phil Burleigh, 11 Tom Brown, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Nathan Fowles, 8 Magnus Bradbury, 7 John Hardie, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist(c), 4 Ben Toolis, 3 WP Nel, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Rory Sutherland
Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Kevin Bryce, 19 Fraser McKenzie, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Solomoni Rasolea

Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Hadleigh Parkes, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Aled Davies, 8 John Barclay, 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 David Bulbring, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Ken Owens (c), 1 Wyn Jones
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Luke Garrett, 18 Peter Edwards, 19 Tadhg Beirne, 20 Josh Macleod, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Dan Jones, 23 Aled Thomas

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Sean Gallagher (Ireland), Graeme Ormiston (Scotland)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)