Llanelli Scarlets 14 Edinburgh 13: Visitors show they have the will but not quite the way to kick losing habit

Saturday 2 March 2013

Edinburgh may have slumped to an 11th consecutive defeat but they did regain some pride with a battling performance that pushed the play-off-chasing Scarlets all the way.

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Stuart McAllister at Parc y Scarlets

Everything pointed towards a heavy defeat for the visitors but they showed great determination and even came close to snatching a victory at the end.

The script was pretty plain before the game; Scarlets were chasing a top-four place while Edinburgh are are without a win since the first day of December.

As far as the pundits were concerned, the only question was when Scarlets would get the bonus point, despite talk in the home camp about being wary of wounded opponents. That was how the game began, too, Scarlets dominating possession and getting an early penalty for offside in front of the posts, converted by their outside-half Aled Thomas,Better was to come with a move straight off the training pitch which was not read by the Edinburgh defence. Left-wing Andy Fenby was given an inside pass by outside-half Thomas from clean lineout possession, he cut inside flanker Hamish Watson and then outside opposite number Dougie Fife to go 40 yards to the corner.Edinburgh could have faded away if they had followed the script, but they did not, with Dave Denton and Harry Leonard leading the way in their contrasting styles. Denton came close to barging his way over from short range, with Leonard getting his side on the scoreboard with a penalty. Then Leonard showed some vision with his passing, sending a deep pass out to blindside wing Fife to give him the space to get outside the home defence and go over in the corner. Leonard converted from wide out to put his side ahead.The Edinburgh scrum were starting to get on top, loosehead Allan Jacobsen, at the other end of the experience scale to his opposite number Samson Lee, piling on the pressure.Edinburgh may have felt they were in the contest, but they were unable to extend their lead before half-time. They did just that immediately after the break, though, their former Wales scrum-half Richie Rees managing to charge down a defensive kick before releasing an attack out wide, forcing the Scarlets to kill the ball to prevent the try. Leonard kicked the easy penalty.Scarlets started to retain more possession and went through more than 20 phases of pressure before narrowing the gap with an easy penalty for Thomas. The Welsh then came close to scoring a breakaway try which was prevented by a fabulous covering tackle by Leonard on Scarlets wing Nic Reynolds. Flanker Johnathan Edwards did get over the line only for the TV match official to rule against the try.Owen Williams missed two long-range penalties and, for all their pressure, Scarlets were struggling to make it show on the scoreboard.They were handed an extra advantage by the Italian referee Guiseppe Vivarini when he sin-binned Fife for lying on the wrong side of a ruck. It was harsh on Fife, who was not blocking the ball, but was the victim of too many similar offences preceding it.Williams gave Edinburgh another let-off by missing his third penalty in a seven-minute period but finally managed to score one from in front of the posts to nudge his side ahead.Edinburgh had the late chance of a breakaway through Watson, but the Scarlets defence did just enough to keep them ahead as the final whistle brought relief.

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Llanelli Scarlets 14 Edinburgh 13: Visitors show they have the will but not quite the way to kick losing habit

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