Dragon slayer: Edinburgh's Greig Laidlaw touches down for a try
Edinburgh continued their recent Magners League resurgence with a comfortable 27-15 victory over the Dragons at Murrayfield.
The Scottish side have now won three of their past four matches as tries by fly-half Greg Laidlaw, winger Tim Visser and full-back Chris Paterson, eased them past the Welsh opposition.
Paterson converted all three scores and also added two penalties. Newport hit back through wing Aled Brew and stand-in full-back Adam Hughes, but they remain winless in Scotland since 2009.
The first period started brightly with Paterson converting a penalty opportunity but it took until 10 minutes before half-time before the next points were scored.
In-form Brew touched down with fly-half Jason Tovey converting.
After a frustrating opening half-an-hour, the game was beginning to brighten up when Laidlaw duly went over for Edinburgh, the metronomic Paterson adding the extras.
The Scottish full-back then continued the scoring late in the half, converting a penalty opportunity to leave the game finely balanced at 13-7.
A Visser try converted by Paterson early in the second period continued Edinburgh's momentum before the full-back scored a deserved try of his own.
Paterson, of course, added the extras to bring them within touching distance of a much welcome bonus-point. But it was the Dragons who seemed to take control of the match.
Tovey reduced the arrears with a penalty. Then, with 15 remaining, Newport gave themselves a further glimmer of hope through Hughes' try.
However, Tovey crucially missed the conversion and the visitors remained 12 points adrift.
A scuffle broke out which saw locks Esteban Lozada and Andrew Combs sin-binned for each side, but neither team could take advantage in the latter stages.
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Laidlaw, Paterson, Visser
Cons: Paterson 3
Pens: Paterson 2
For Dragons:
Tries: Brew, Hughes
Cons: Tovey
Pens: Tovey
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Simon Webster, 13 Jim Thompson, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Denton, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Stuart McInally, 5 Esteban Lozada, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Andrew Kelly (c), 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Lewis Niven, 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 (C), 11 Aled Brew, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Jon Evans,8 Joe Bearman, 7 Gavin Thomas, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Adam Jones, 4 Andrew Coombs, 3 Dan Way, 2 Steve Jones, 1 Hugh Gustafson.
Replacements: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Phil Price, 18 Ben Castle, 19 Lewis Evans, 20 Toby Faletau, 21 Matthew Watkins, 22 Wayne Evans, 23 Matthew Jones.
Referee: David Wilkinson
Comments
admack says...
TIM VISSER FOR SCOTLAND.....look out
Posted 22:26 26th April 2011