A BT Murrayfield audience was treated to another try fest last night as Edinburgh strengthened their grip on European Challenge Cup Pool 4 by swatting aside their struggling visitors.

London Irish had lost nine successive matches and while they twice led in the early stages they ultimately offered little real resistance, conceding eight tries to their hosts who are close to clinching a quarter-final spot with just half their matches played.

“We have to get maximum points out of Krasny Yar next week and if we get a result against them I’d like to think we’d be in shape for qualifying and then we obviously entertain Stade so that will be a good challenge for us,” head coach Richard Cockerill said afterwards.

“It was a good win, Some good tries, some good passages of play so all very positive. We are slowly building our game, I am a little bit disappointed around the tries we conceded but I thought the boys showed some character.”

Edinburgh having been forced into a late change when new Scotland cap Darryl Marfo pulled out with a bad back, to make way for fellow international Rory Sutherland, London Irish had kicked off and a lengthy spell of early pressure ultimately earned the penalty under the posts which let Tommy Bell nudge them ahead, but Edinburgh’s first attack yielded more.

They had set up a driving maul which first looked to have stalled then to have broken up as ball carrier Stuart McInally became detached at the back. His reaction surprised the first line of defence, however, as the former back-row forward produced a sharp burst of pace to break through and his power took him through the cover tackle to go over wide on the left.

That led to the English club responding in time dishonoured fashion, resorting to the most basic of approaches and the sort of interminable sequence of scrums and re-set scrums as they ground out penalty after free kick after penalty in a six minute period in which the ball was an irrelevance until the referee eventually acceded to what London Irish were looking for and sin-binned Sutherland.

That only made it the more satisfying when, from the ensuing scrummage, Edinburgh managed to force an error as their opponents’ finally moved the ball in a bid to capitalise on their man advantage. There was an element of natural justice to what happened next as they then forced Bell to lose the ball in contact and the counter-attack was launched, the ball shifted quickly right where Damien Hoyland did brilliantly to deal with a pass thrown over his head to pat it down into the path of Blair Kinghorn.

The full-back chipped in behind the defensive line and while his opposite number Greig Tonks, the former Edinburgh player, was always favourite to get to it first as it crossed the line, he failed to control the ball and as it spun away from him Kinghorn dived on the loose ball for his side’s second try.

To their credit London Irish came up with a more enterprising response, scoring a long range try of their own as Scott Steele fielded a high ball in his own 22 and sent Ben Loader into space on the left. His kick ahead was well angled, allowing Ben Ransom to get to it first and he controlled his hack ahead well then touched down.

Edinburgh’s response was instant, Magnus Bradbury carrying the ball powerfully down the left to make good ground before the ball was shifted right where, with the defence stretched and scrambliung to prevent an overlap, Phil Burleigh showed a dummy then slipped over.

Their fourth, bonus point ensuring try came soon after, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne making a half break then cleverly angling his grubber for Chris Dean to run onto and while the centre collected it at pace and seemed to have the line at his mercy, as defenders homed in on him he instead fed the ball to midfield partner Burleigh who scampered in for his second try.

That took them to the interval 26-10 ahead and while there was still work to be done to be sure of the win the result was secured when, as another lineout drive stalled, Hidalgo-Clyne broke down the blindside and fended off a weak attempted tackle to go over in the left corner.

An extra sheen was put on the win when Edinburgh attacked down the left again and Burleigh this time turned creator, his grubber kick through bouncing up perfectly for the pursuing Darcy Graham to demonstrate the finishing skills that earned him his place as, in one movement, the little winger leapt, grabbed the ball out of the hands of Ben Ransom and touched down for a debut try.

There were four more tries in the final quarter, ex-Edinburgh man Mike Coman and Ben Meehan scoring for the visitors while Junior Rasolea and Sean Kennedy responded to both.