Edinburgh might have been slow into their stride last night, but they dished up a wonderful finish to secure their first bonus point of the season.

Two tries in the dying minutes put that icing on their cake, but this was no flattering gloss on the scoreline: their best result of the season was built on a satisfyingly solid all-round performance.

That was embroidered by a sublime kicking display from Greig Laidlaw, who ended the match with a 100% record after claiming four conversions and five penalties. There were also meaty displays by Cornell Du Preez and Ross Rennie in the back row and by Jack Cuthbert and Dougie Fife on the wings.

"We were a bit frantic and rushed at times but we realised at half-time that if we held on to the ball then the gaps would open up," said Alan Solomons, the Edinburgh coach. "It was fantastic to get two tries near the end. Connacht are not an easy team to beat and I have a lot of respect for them."

Dan Parks all but owned Murrayfield in his final season with Glasgow and the former Scotland fly-half showed the old instincts were still there when a pin-point kick to the right corner allowed Connacht to lay siege to the Edinburgh line for the opening minutes.

Nothing came of that onslaught but in the 11th minute Parks split the sticks with a superb dropped goal, obliterating the lead Edinburgh had taken with a Laidlaw penalty. In any case, the tentative preliminaries were quickly forgotten when a swift and skilful Connacht handling movement down the left side ended with full-back Robbie Henshaw crossing for the first try of the evening.

It was no more than the Irish team deserved at that point and they could easily have had another couple of touchdowns in that first half-hour when they found the first line of the Edinburgh defence remarkably easy to puncture. However, Edinburgh scrambled well, and a couple of Laidlaw penalties cut Connacht's lead to just one point, at 10-9, before that 30-minute mark was reached.

Edinburgh had clearly decided to attack the narrow channels, mostly using hooker Aleki Lutui as first receiver of choice. The policy brought little reward on the scoreboard at the outset, but it certainly sapped the energies of the Connacht defence, and the Scots looked more and more likely to make a breakthrough as time went on.

It finally, and deservedly, arrived just before half-time. Edinburgh had churned possession through a few phases in a sequence that involved notable contributions from Rennie and Nick De Luca and they found a crucial gap when Ben Atiga provided a superb inside pass that allowed Fife to hit the ball at pace and thunder over the line.

A 40th-minute score is about the hardest kind to take and Connacht still seemed to be suffering the effects of Fife's try when they came back out for the second half. Edinburgh were still energised, and threw themselves back into the contest with renewed gusto. Rennie came up just short as he drove low for a try in the 49th minute, but Edinburgh did get some reward from that period when Laidlaw clipped over his fourth penalty of the evening.

It also helped that the luck of the Irish seemed to have deserted Parks by that point. The 35-year-old had hit the near post with a penalty late in the first half and he repeated the error 14 minutes into the second. Parks departed soon afterwards, replaced by Craig Ronaldson, but no sooner had the change been made than Laidlaw added another three points to Edinburgh's advantage with his fifth penalty strike.

As Edinburgh's lead grew, Connacht's attempts to gnaw into it looked more and more fitful, but at 22-10 it could yet have been overwhelmed and Solomons' team needed another score to put the result beyond doubt. It duly arrived in the 72nd minute when, after a stirring run by Cuthbert, Du Preez ploughed over in the right corner for Edinburgh's second try.

Even then, only the most wildly optimistic of home supporters would have considered a bonus point achievable but Edinburgh produced a remarkable late try double. First, in the 77th minute, De Luca intercepted a wild pass deep in the Connacht 22 and dived in for his score. Two minutes later, the international centre was the provider with a sizzling break that allowed Willem Nel to canter the few yards for the fourth touchdown.