Scarlets 15 Edniburgh 26

They go into the Challenge Cup quarter-final against London Irish on the back of this crucial victory which puts them in poll position to claim a top six spot in the Guiness Pro12 and an automatic place in the Champions Cup next season.

This victory, the first time the Scarlets have lost at home in the Pro12 since December 2013, certainly does not assure Edinburgh of that top six place, but defeat would almost certainly have ruled them out.

Connacht currently occupy that position, but they have fiendishly tough remaining fixtures. The Scarlets are still the favourites as they have the bottom four left to play, but Edinburgh have a three point cushion over them which makes home games against Munster and Leinster likely to be decisive.

Before that, facing London Irish in a big European game brings back memories of three seasons ago when winning in the Madejski Stadium was a springboard towards the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

Man-of-the-match that day was Stuart McInally, playing at No.8. He will be one of the few players returning to Reading in Edinburgh colours next weekend, but to emphasise the process of change he will be doing so as a hooker.

He also took over the captaincy of Edinburgh after flanker Mike Coman went off just after half-time in Llanelli, which meant the decisive moments - especially when the Scarlets were reduced to 14 men with scrum half Gareth Davies sent off for a head-butt on Edinburgh centre Phil Burleigh.

Edinburgh had come from behind to take the lead at that point - and always seemed to have the sharper cutting edge - but the sending-off of the replacement nine meant international outside half Rhys Priestland providing the link and the Scarlets lost any hope of a joined up attack from then.

"We were delighted with the result. We knew it was going to be a huge task coming down - the fact they have not lost here in the Pro12 this season was a massive incentive for us to come and be the first team to do that," said McInally.

"We are really happy, we knew it would be a huge battle between us and Scarlets and Connacht for that sixth place spot so we needed to get four points today and to stop them getting that point which we did. This was a mini-final in itself for us, we are back on track for sixth.

"Top teams win away at the Scarlets when they need to and that is what we did today. It is massive to get some momentum going into the London Irish game, we have got to keep building momentum.

"I have good memories there, you have to go back a few years and it is a different tournament now. It was a good day for me, I got a lot of ball and things seemed to happen for me.

"It is different now as a hooker. I am happy that after a couple of years I am coming out of a transition phase, I am trusted to start for Edinburgh in games like the Scarlets.

"I am far from an expert, I feel I pick up something new at every scrum, but we spend a lot of time on our scrum at Edinburgh and we were happy with that and our lineout defence.

"It is a very big couple of weeks, the European stuff has been a massive highlight for the club this season, disappointing we were not able to play in the top tier competition but realistically that is where we were so it is up to this group of players to try and bring top tier European rugby back."

Edinburgh started well with a try from their own half, full back Jack Cuthbert launching the attack with some sleight of hand before Burleigh and wing Tim Visser inter-passed to send the centre clear.

Sam Hidalgo-Clyne was successful with six out of six kicks at goal, starting with that conversion. Indiscipline saw the Scarlets move ahead before David Denton finished off a move that had started with the excellent lock Ben Toolis stealing a lineout. Toolis, along with Hamish Watson, McInally and Rory Sutherland were the most noteworthy Edinburgh performers up front.

A scrappy second half, including the sending-off, meant the boot of Hidalgo-Clyne did the rest.