Edinburgh won their final Magners League home game of the season and third in a row as record-smashing wing Tim Visser caused all sorts of problems for the visiting Dragons at a misty Murrayfield.
The Dutch wing added to his record haul of tries with his 14th of the campaign, but also helped create the other two scores and had the Welshmen’s defence in shreds with his powerful running in a man-of-the-match display.
The capital club put on a free-running show for the fans in their last home game of a difficult 2010-11 campaign, but were not able to get the bonus point for four tries, which would have seen them leapfrog the Dragons in the Magners League going into the final game of the regular season in a fortnight’s time.
It was as good an all-round display as Edinburgh have shown this season, with Ross Rennie returning with a dynamic display at open-side, Greig Laidlaw again showing up well at fly-half, and Mike Blair continuing his excellent late-season form.
Chris Paterson had a perfect night with a try, two penalties and conversions of his own try and those by Laidlaw and Visser.
“The win is first and foremost but we played some good stuff out there, especially in the first half,” said coach Nick Scrivener.
“That told I think when the Dragons had possession in the second half but defending in the first had taken it out of them a bit.Confident”Tim Visser’s very confident at the best of times but especially so right now and it’s hard to stop him if he gets a half-break, but there’s a great deal of work done by the other guys to make the positions so that he can shine like he did tonight.”
Edinburgh had the lead almost straight from the kick-off from a Dragons obstruction, but the surprise was that Paterson’s simple penalty was the only score of a wide-open and entertaining opening quarter.
The home side put together 20-plus phases at one point, but were stalled by some scrambling defence from the visitors and then Visser went close with a chip and chase that just bounced away from him to a Dragons defender.
The home side failed to make any use of all their possession and were taught a lesson in finishing on the half-hour mark as Jason Tovey picked a soft spot between two Edinburgh defenders and then fed Aled Brew picking a perfect line against the retreating backline to score under the posts, the fly-half adding the extra two points.
Edinburgh learned the lesson and their response was immediate, however, Visser again causing the Dragons’ backline more problems at pace and Laidlaw taking his wing’s pass off first phase ball and showing great pace to wrong-foot the remaining defenders to the line.
Paterson converted and added his second penalty soon after when Rennie got in to pirate ball and the Dragons infringed.
Tovey missed a penalty chance from a tight angle and Edinburgh had the half-time lead their enterprising play deserved.
After a defensive stand on their own line early in the second spell, Visser claimed his 14th try of the season seven minutes after the break with a surging run and glorious side-step from quick ball after a Paterson break.TangledThe veteran added the conversion and a rampant Edinburgh should have scored again straight away, only for Nick De Luca and Simon Webster to get tangled up after the Scotland centre had made a clean break.
But a third try was only delayed by a few minutes as Edinburgh continued to play with flair and abandon, and a superb Visser off-load led to Paterson going in for a try he converted himself.
Tovey landed a long penalty to stem the tide against the Dragons and full-back Adam Hughes pulled them right back into the contest when he won the race for a neat kick from his fly-half for his side’s second try, which went unconverted.
A flurry of punches between Esteban Lozada and Dragons lock Andrews Coombs saw them both yellow-carded which served to take the fire out of the Dragons for the final 10 minutes, but
Edinburgh couldn’t quite force the fourth try that would have seen them go above their visitors in the league.
Attendance 2935 Edinburgh C Paterson; S Webster (L Jones 61), J Thompson, N De Luca, T Visser; G Laidlaw, M Blair; K Traynor (L Niven 67), A Kelly (capt), G Cross; S MacLeod, E Lozada; S McInally, R Rennie (S Newlands 65), D Denton.Dragons A Hughes; M Pewtener (M Jones 62), T Riley, A Smith (capt), A Brew; J Tovey, J Evans (W Evans 57); H Gustafson (P Price 71), S Jones (L Burns 60), D Way (B Castle 71); A Coombs, A Jones; D Lydiate, L Evans, J Bearman (T Faletau 51).Referee D Wilkinson (IRFU).