Edinburgh produced a dominant second-half performance to turn the contest on its head and deny the Scarlets only a second away win of the BKT United Rugby Championship season.

The West Walians were good value for their 15-7 lead at half-time thanks to tries from Tom Rogers and Gareth Davies, but starved of possession after the break, they were unable to withstand a relentless tide of home offensives.

At times, Scarlets put in some heroic defensive stands and held a one-point lead going into the final quarter, but that effort without the ball took its toll late on as the Scottish play-off chasers ran away with the game to emerge 43-18 victors.

Dwayne Peel’s side were up and running after just five minutes, inspired by Sam Lousi’s line-out pilfering.

His gather and brilliant off-load set up a swift attack that put Edinburgh on their heels. Alex Craig and Sam Wainwright carried strongly, and when the ball was recycled, Vaea Fifita’s one-handed assist over the trop sent Rogers diving over in the corner. Sam Costelow converted brilliantly to provide the Scarlets with a dream start.

Edinburgh then laid siege to the visitors’ line with desperate defence from the likes of Costelow and Gareth Davies somehow keeping the home side at bay. The pressure did, however, eventually tell when Edinburgh full-back and player of the match Wes Goosen dummied his way over on 17 minutes, a score converted by fly-half Ben Healy.

Aided by some superb line-out burgling from Sam Lousi and Vaea Fifita, Scarlets were very much in the contest.

Costelow restored Scarlets’ lead with a long-range penalty from straight in front, then the visitors came close after the impressive Fifita went charging to the posts off the back of an attacking scrum.

Scarlets did, though, get their second try thanks to an opportunist score from scrum-half Davies.

Lousi’s towering presence saw him charge down Ali Price’s box kick close to halfway, Craig hacked through and Davies turned on the after-burners to collect and score. Costelow was wide with the extras, but Scarlets still led 15-7.

It needed a big defensive effort in the final minute of the half to halt Edinburgh’s powerful driving maul, ensuring the Scarlets went in at the break with a two-score lead.

It took Edinburgh just three minutes of the second half to respond. Duhan van der Merwe came off a clever inside pass from Price and once the Scotland powerhouse had pierced the defence, there was only going to be one outcome. 

Healy added the conversion to reduce the Scarlets lead to a point, then added a penalty to put his side in front for the first time.

Costelow nailed a penalty from short range following a rare foray into home territory as the Scarlets clawed back the lead again, but that was as good as it got.

After some heroic Scarlets defence on their own line, Edinburgh found a way through for their third try - Healy putting wing Matt Currie over under the posts to make it 24-18 to the hosts.

That defensive effort was clearly taking its toll on the visitors and it had its effect in the final quarter. Replacement Pierre Schoeman pounced for a trademark close-range score to give Edinburgh the try bonus, centre Mark Bennett added another from a turnover counter and Fijian No. 8 Viliame Mata finished off his side’s sixth of the night.

Edinburgh - tries: W. Goosen, D. van der Merwe, M. Currie, P. Schoeman, M. Bennett. V. Mata. Cons: B. Healy (5). Pen: Healy

Scarlets - tries: T. Rogers, G. Davies. Con: S. Costelow. Pens: Costelow (2).