"DON'T weaken a strength in order to strengthen a weakness."

The saying is stamped on to the first page of the coaching manual. This was the game where Duncan Hodge, the acting Edinburgh head coach, and Stevie Scott, his forwards assistant, made sure they put it into practice.

For the last couple of seasons, any success that came Edinburgh's way was based on the effectiveness of their steamroller of a pack. As they have tried to expand their game this season, however, the pack has gone backwards – sometimes, and far too often, literally.

This was the game where Edinburgh proved they could do both. They could chuck the ball about and reap the rewards, but they could also do the hard donkey work and reap the rewards from that, too.

Murray McCallum, fresh from last season's Under-20s and attempting to switch sides, did a sterling 80-minute shift, the top choice front row was not needed and Stuart McInally, the captain and hooker got a hat trick as his side put the squeeze on their Romanian opponents.

This was Timisoara's first venture into continental rugby and their inexperience was glaring at times as Edinburgh ran up records for winning margin, score, tries and conversions in all European competition.

Yet, they did show in the second half that when they had the ball, the do not let go of it easily. They scored tries in each half, winger Stephen Shennan getting both, and they were over the line a couple more times, forcing the best out of the Edinburgh defence to stop the ball being grounded.

In case you are running away with the idea that these games are easy, it should be pointed out that they have 50 full-time professionals on their books while the other qualifiers, Enisei STM from Russia, won their game against Worcester from the English Premiership. They are raw, untested and inexperienced, but you still have to go out and do the job.

What pleased McInally most was that when they needed to go tight, they did and made the effort pay off. When they had the chances to go wide they did that too, and though the forwards got eight of the nine tries, only his hat trick was down to old-fashioned grunt.

"When was the last time 'hat trick' and my name were in the same sentence?" he pondered afterwards. "Goodness knows. Especially not now that I am a hooker. Really, it is just that with the law change, I end out at the back of mauls and on a day like this, when we are functioning really well, I am the lucky one who gets to touch the ball down after everyone else has done the hard work."

That maul has been a mainstay of Edinburgh rugby for a while, so he was more than happy to welcome it back. He was also more than happy that when chances came, they were able to attack from all over the field, with Viliame "Bill" Mata, the huge Fijian sevens specialist, having a memorable impact.

"Bill? He did all right. He did not look too bad did he? Twenty minutes into the game I spoke to him and said 'come on Bill, let's see you carry a bit more' and the next thing he is setting Nasi [Manu, the No.8] up in the corner. No problem, I will take that," said McInally.

It was a memorable start for Mata who helped lay on the first try in the opening seconds and then scored himself almost straight form the restart. He went on to score another and pay a role in a couple more while his thunderous tacking had even the Romanian crowd wincing in sympathy with the victims.

"Harlequins [this weekend's opponent] is going to be a much sterner task, let's make no mistake about that," McInally warned. "There were a lot of new faces in our pack though. I am very pleased for Murray McCallum who got a full 80 minutes, that was excellent for him. We had a few changes and it was nice that it all went really well.

"The tries were something we spoke a lot about. We just did not want to give them a way into the game. We thought they would base it on their physicality in the forwards so I am pleased that we matched that. I'm disappointed we conceded a couple of tries, but I don't want that to take the gloss off the good work we did.

"As a forward pack, we were really pleased. We spoke a lot about the driving maul this week and felt we could really get into the game with that. I was pleased that every time we kicked to the corner and drove the line out, we got something out of it – a penalty or a try. It was massive for us, a really good start to the game."

Scorers: Timisoara Saracens: Tries: Shennan (16, 75). Con: Calafeteanu 2. Pen: Calafeteanu (8)

Edinburgh: Tries: Allen (2), Mata (4, 49), McInally (12, 24, 32), Manu (34, 37, 65). Cons: Tovey 7.

Scoring sequence (Timisoara Saracens first): 0-7, 0-14, 3-14, 3-19, 10-19, 10-26, 10-31, 10-38, 10-45, 10-52, 10-59, 17-59.

Scorers: Timisoara Saracens: Tries: Shennan (2). Cons: Calafeteanu 2. Pen: Calafeteanu.

Edinburgh: Tries: Allen, Mata (2), McInally (3), Manu (3). Cons: Tovey 7.

Timisoara Saracens: C Fercu; F Tangimana (G Gonache, 56), B Sefanaia (D Vladut Zaharia, 48), J Umaga, S Shennan; J Rose, V Calafeteanu; G Militaru (sin bin: 30-40, E Aholelei, 53), E Capatana (A Radoi,50), H Pungea (S Maris, 55), V Popirlan (I Muresan, 65), M Drenceanu, D Ianus (T Manumua, 53), V Rus, S Stelian Burcea.

Edinburgh: R Scholes; A Northam, S Tofilau, J Rasolea, M Allen (G Bryce, 66); J Tovey (B Kinghorn, 66) S Hidalgo-Clyne (N Fowles, 53); A Dell (R Sutherland, 50), S McInally (C) (N Cochrane, 45), M McCallum, F McKenzie, B Toolis (L Carmichael, 53), V Mata (V Fihaki, 53), J Hardie, N Manu.

Referee: I Tempest (England)

Attendance: 2000