Edinburgh beat Scarlets 26-15 in Guinness PRO12
Last Updated: 29/03/15 5:59pm
Edinburgh boosted their hopes of a top-six finish in the Guinness PRO12 with a 26-15 victory away to 14-man Scarlets.
Phil Burleigh and David Denton scored first-half tries at the Parc y Scarlets, while Sam Hidalgo-Clyne kicked 16 points to move Edinburgh above their opponents and into seventh in the table.
All of Scarlets' points came from Steve Shingler's five first-half penalties, but their hopes of maintaining their unbeaten home record were dashed when replacement scrum-half Gareth Davies was sent off on the hour mark for a headbutt on Andries Strauss.
Referee John Lacey asked for the incident to be reviewed by the TV match official before showing the red card to Davies, who came off the bench for Wales in Italy last weekend.
Davies was one of a host of Wales internationals back in the Scarlets squad and they set the tone early on as they earned a penalty inside 20 seconds, which Shingler kicked from in front of the posts.
Edinburgh fought back with a well-worked try, centre Burleigh crossing after nice interchange with Tim Visser and Hidalgo-Clyne added the extras.
But after that the visitors found themselves on the back foot as the penalties racked up. In blustery conditions, Shingler put over penalties on 12, 18, 23 and 26 minutes.
Shingler’s fifth successful kick came after Greig Tonks was sent to the sin bin, but Edinburgh enjoyed a purple patch while a man down with Hamish Watson twice going close.
The Scots finished the half strongly, helped after No 8 John Barclay was shown a yellow card. Hidalgo-Clyne potted a penalty and Denton squeezed over for their second try in the final minute of the half.
Scarlets lost Scott Williams and George Earle to injury just before the interval and things got worse when Davies was giving his marching orders.
The red card led to the first points of the second half with Hidalgo-Clyne's successful penalty extending Edinburgh's lead to five points.
Hidalgo-Clyne kicked another penalty with six minutes remaining to move the hosts out of losing bonus-point range, and he added a fourth at the death to put the gloss on their first win over the Scarlets in 13 matches.
