Four-try Edinburgh end on top

Mission accomplished: Edinburgh

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• Edinburgh
• London Irish

Edinburgh booked a home Heineken Cup quarter-final thanks to a four-try 34-11 win over London Irish at Murrayfield on Sunday.

The hosts scored two tries in the final 10 minutes to secure victory over the Exiles in a thrilling finish to Pool 2. The late tries ensured Edinburgh top their group ahead of Cardiff Blues, who failed score four tries in their victory over Racing Metro.

Fly-half Adrian Jarvis put London Irish ahead with a penalty early on but Edinburgh responded quickly with the opening try of the game as flying Dutch winger Tim Visser raced on to an intelligent kick through and touched down in the corner.

Greig Laidlaw added the conversion and two penalties either side of one from Jarvis before Scottish full-back Jim Thompson took advantage of a huge overlap to score a crucial second try for the hosts and give them a 20-6 half-time lead.

The second half took a while to get going as both teams wrestled for possession and territorial advantage but replacement centre Jonathan Joseph provided a much needed spark for London Irish as he finished off an incisive counter-attack from deep to get his side back in the game.

Edinburgh regrouped though and effectively sealed victory with ten minutes remaining when imposing Fijian number eight Netani Talei crashed over from a few metres out.

And with just three minutes left to play, things got even better for the Scots as winger Lee Jones crossed for a fourth try which sealed a bonus point and a home quarter-final as they finished top of Pool Two ahead of Cardiff Blues.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Tries: Visser, Thompson, Talei, Jones
Cons: Laidlaw 4
Pens: Laidlaw 2

For London Irish:
Try: Joseph,
Pens: Jarvis

Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 David Denton, 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Phil Godman, 22 John Houston, 23 Tom Brown.

London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Jonathan Spratt, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10 Adrian Jarvis, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Alex Gray, 7 David Sisi, 6 Matthew Garvey, 5 Bob Casey, 4 James Sandford, 3 Leo Halavatau, 2 James Buckland, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Brian Blaney, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Faan Rautenbach, 19 Nick Kennedy, 20 Bryn Evans, 21 Jonathan Joseph, 22 Steven Shingler, 23 Ross Samson.

Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)