Edinburgh show some capital class to spank Scarlets
ON a night when scrum-half Nic Groom was forced to withdraw from the starting line-up due to his wife going into labour, this was child’s play for Edinburgh.
Richard Cockerill’s men ran in seven tries — including a hat-trick from Duhan van der Merwe — to demolish Scarlets.
In terms of a statement victory, they don’t come much more emphatic than this and Edinburgh have now scored just shy of a century of points in their two home games this season.
Particularly during a first-half onslaught which yielded four of their seven scores, some of their play was simply a joy to watch.
‘I’m delighted with the win,’ said Cockerill. ‘We did some really good things ball in hand.
Our game is developing well and the foundations of our game are strong.
‘We want to be competing in the play-offs if we can. We’re only four rounds in, so a long way to go, but we’ll just keep picking points up, as many as we can wherever we can.’
Scarlets were blown away by a blistering start by Edinburgh, who scored two tries inside the opening 10 minutes.
Van der Merwe helped himself to an early brace, dotting down in the seventh minute and again just 60 seconds later in a passage of play which stemmed straight from kick-off. Fly-half Simon Hickey converted the second try for a lead of 12-0.
Their dominance found further reward on 22 minutes when South African hooker Mike Willemse powered over from close range, with Hickey adding the extras.
Mark Bennett notched the bonus-point try before half-time. Hickey converted.
Scarlets’ Marc Jones then scored a consolation, with namesake Dan adding the extras. But Willemse crossed for his second and Edinburgh’s fifth, Hickey converting to make it 34-7.
Van der Merwe went over in the corner to seal his hat-trick on 75 minutes, with Sau then crossing to complete a thoroughly emphatic night’s work for Cockerill and his men.