Edinburgh’s dominant front row mashed the Dragons for two tries and a succession of yellow cards as the capital side romped to a four-try Guinness PRO12 win at BT Murrayfield
International props Al Dickinson and WP Nel had a try apiece and dismantled the Welsh side in the scrummage but the match was most notable for four yellow cards against Dragons players, although they were never more than down to 13 men for more than a brief time.
Edinburgh thought they should have had another try just before half-time from Nel but late scores from Tom Brown and Matt Scott gave them the bonus they deserved.
Nel scored Edinburgh’s try after 18 minutes but most in the stadium thought he should have had a second by half-time.
The first came when a fine combination between Phil Burleigh and Cornell du Preez opened up the Dragons on the right and forced a penalty, which the home side kicked to the corner.
Their maul was stalled but successive drives worked it close enough for the Scotland prop to bash over, Hidalgo-Clyne adding to his earlier penalty with the tight conversion.
The scrum-half’s early penalty strike had been matched by Dorian Jones, and the home 9 added a second from point blank as Dragons were again stretched by Edinburgh’s speed of movement.
Jones again landed a penalty as Dragons had a rare foray into Edinburgh’s half, but just before the break a strong run from replacement Blair Kinghorn followed by neat off-loads from Matt Scott and Alex Toolis set the position for Nel to stretch over under the posts.
However referee Marius Mitrea and his TMO seemed like the only ones in Murrayfield who saw a double movement from the prop and the score was chalked off.
The ref didn’t endear himself to the home crowd much more in the second half.
He did hand out two yellow cards in five minutes to Dragons’ Boris Stankovich and Phil Price for persistent scrum infringement, but that only meant uncontested scrums and Edinburgh’s advantage there was blunted.
But despite frantic defence from the Dragons eventually Al Dickinson squeezed in for a try at the corner, although not before Mitrea and TMO had another long and frustrating conference.
Jones was the third man to see yellow for a high tackle in the build up to that score, and there quickly followed a fourth when Matthew Screech twice infringed at a maul.
It was almost farcical, but given the level of blatant penalties conceded by the Welshmen it was hard to see Mitrea having much option than to keep reaching for his card.
Eventually weight of numbers told for Brown to go over in the corner, Hidalgo-Clyne’s conversion his first miss of the night.
And Scott’s run-in after a smart break by replacement scrum-half Sean Kennedy with three minutes left bagged Edinburgh’s first try bonus point of the season, before Cudd returned to score a try for Dragons with the last play.
Att 3354
Edinburgh: G Tonks (B Kinghorn 30); T Brown, C Dean, M Scott, W Helu; P Burleigh (M Allen 74), S Hidalgo-Clyne (S Kennedy 75); A Dickinson (R Sutherland 74), R Ford (N Cochrane 74), WP Nel (J Andress 74); A Toolis, F McKenzie; M Coman (capt), J Hardie (H Watson 64), C du Preez.
Dragons C Meyer; T Prydie, A Hughes, A Warren, A Hewitt; D Jones, C Davies (S Pretorius 62); B Stankovich (P Price 65), E Dee, S Knight (R Thomas 62); M Screech, R Landman (capt); N Crosswell (E Dee 62), O Griffiths, E Jackson.
Ref: M Mitrea (FIR)