Edinburgh Rugby's second-half showing against Scarlets gives hope in push for URC home play-off

Edinburgh will feel that if they can replicate the second 40 minutes of this game in their remaining four regular season matches, away to Cardiff, at home to Zebre, at home to Munster and away to Benetton, then they could find themselves pushing for a home play-off at the end of the campaign.

“It was a difficult first half for us as the Scarlets stole a lot of our line-outs,” said victorious head coach Sean Everitt. “We had ten line-outs and just one clean delivery. We sorted out the line-out strategy at half-time and we built some momentum with the new front row coming on. They played an integral part in the power game we showed in the second half. Pierre Schoeman, WP Nel and Ewan Ashman were instrumental in that. The forwards did a great job in building pressure on the Scarlets which was something we did not do in the first half.”

Edinburgh started brightly and looked set to take a second minute lead when Boan Venter burrowed for the line following a series of close-range rucks, but the prop lost control of the ball at the key moment. Instead, the hosts found themselves trailing by seven points just three minutes later, after Vaea Fifita sent Tom Rogers over in the left corner with a lateral American Football style pass, and Sam Costelow nailed the touchline conversion.

Wes Goosen was in lively form and after three promising incursions from the New Zealander were thwarted by a combination of good Scarlets defence and clunky support play from the hosts, he finally got his reward. The full-back threw a wicked dummy and then streaked home on a glorious arcing run, and Ben Healy’s conversion squared the contest. However, the home team failed to build from there, and Costelow nudged the visitors back into the lead after Mark Bennett was penalised for not releasing his man after the tackle.

With Edinburgh’s front-row ‘bomb-squad’ making an immediate impact, Edinburgh laid down a marker for the second half just four minutes after the resumption when previously anonymous Duhan van der Merwe burst onto a switch-pass from Ali Price to score under the posts. Ben Healy and Costelow exchanged penalties, before Matt Currie scored Edinburgh’s third try off a delayed pass from Healy, then Schoeman rumbled over from close range to secure the bonus point.

Van der Merwe thought he had claimed his second when he scooped up a loose ball and collected his own chip ahead, but a referral to the TMO identified a knock-on by the big winger right at the start of the move. It was only a temporary let-off for Scarlets because some great counter-rucking from Marshall Sykes moments later earned Edinburgh turnover on their own 22 and Bennett ran it all the way home.

Edinburgh’s final flourish was a wonderful sweeping try, initiated by a Chris Dean on the right, followed by an excellent backhanded offload from Connor Boyle, and a dancing finish from Viliame Mata.