Solomons’ plan coming to fruition as Edinburgh’s march on European places goes on
EDINBURGH head coach Alan Solomons said their European Champions Cup charge is proof his master plan is falling into place.
Scotland scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne delivered a man-of-the-match performance as tries from internationals Tim Visser and David Denton boosted them into seventh.
The 26-15 reversal — in which Scarlets scrum-half Gareth Davies was shown a red card — was the first time anyone has beaten the Welsh outfit at their home in the league since boxing day in 2013.
And with one eye on the Challenge Cup quarter-final against London Irish, Solomons reckons his policy of promoting from within is finally paying off.
He said: ‘It would be massive to have two teams in the European Champions Cup. It’s important both of our professional teams do well and in the last few years Edinburgh have struggled.
‘But we’ve made some great progress, we have good strength in depth and we have some exciting youngsters coming through.
‘We had Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Hamish Watson, Rory Sutherland and Ben Toolis in the side today and that was my vision.
‘It was to build the club through Scottish talent and it’s great to see that coming to fruition.’
Edinburgh were on the back foot after just 15 seconds in West Wales.
Scarlets’ Lewis Rawlins crashed through kick-off receiver Jack Cuthbert, who was forced to hold on to the ball at the very first ruck.
Steven Shingler was on hand to knock the penalty shot over from right in front of the posts to give the hosts an early advantage.
But Solomons’ side were shocked into action and produced a slick kick return to hit the front.
Cuthbert ran a chip over the top from Shingler and slipped a back-handed offload to Watson, who linked well with the onrushing Phil Burleigh.
The former Super Rugby star carried into Scarlets territory and found Visser, who charged down the right flank before giving a return
pass to the Kiwi, who went over for a seven-point score.
But the Welsh side chipped away at the lead with a Shingler penalty.
Edinburgh’s indiscipline allowed the Scarlets hit man to notch another pair of penalties before referee John Lacey reached the end of his tether.
He sent Greig Tonks for 10 minutes in the sin-bin for obstruction when Jordan Williams threatened to burst through — and Shingler was once again on hand to punish the Scots.
But Hidalgo-Clyne kicked a penalty after John Barclay slowed a promising attack at a ruck before he engineered a comeback score on half-time.
He then delivered a scoring pass to Denton, who crashed through Harry Robinson to go over in the corner.
The scrum-half was on target with the conversion to give his side a 17-15 half-time advantage.
After consulting with television match official Derek Bevan, Lacey showed Davies a red card, just two minutes after he entered the fray, for headbutting Strauss on 59 minutes.
Hidalgo-Clyne kept his 100 per-cent kicking record intact to put Edinburgh five points clear.
Edinburgh finally put breathing distance between them and their Champions Cup rivals with a powerful scrum-drive.
They won the crucial penalty with 10 minutes left and Hidalgo-Clyne showed nerves of steel to stroke the match-winning kick over.
He slotted another to put Edinburgh 26-15 up and out of sight as they march on towards a seat at European rugby’s top table.