EDINBURGH moved to within a point of a Pro14 play-off place in spectacular fashion as they rattled in eight tries to record their biggest win of the league season in routing the defending champions at BT Murrayfield yesterday.

It was, admittedly, a second string Scarlets side, 13 changes having been made to the team that had comfortably beaten Glasgow Warriors a week earlier as they limber up for next weekend’s European Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Dublin, but head coach Richard Cockerill was still entitled to be pleased with the way his players had responded to the tougher approach he had taken with them in the build-up to this match following two damaging defeats to Cardiff Blues and Ulster.

“It was a good performance and better than stumbling past a weakened side, so we’ll take that and we’ve got Glasgow in a couple of weeks and we want to win that game because that’ll clearly put us by rights into the play-offs,” he said.

“I just said to the players before the game ‘it’s a game we have to win’. I’ve got to the point where we’ve got to realise that and I was a little bit bored with putting my arm round them and tapping them on the back and saying ‘are you all right?’ It was a case of saying ‘let’s bloody front up and if you really care about what we’re trying to do here and it means something to you then turn up and do it.’”

The victory looked to have come at a cost when Blair Kinghorn, their player of the season, hobbled off the pitch just before the interval, then reappeared with his leg in a brace and heavily strapped, but Cockerill was optimistic that he can still feature in their remaining matches.

“Blair tweaked his knee a little bit on the inside. I don’t think it’s too bad, we’re still assessing it, so we’ll see over the next 24/48 hours, but I don’t think it’s anything that will keep him out for the season.”

The full-back had got things started, scoring their opener, albeit there was some fortune about it, a fine move down the right, involving both centres, having been completed when James Johnstone sent him into the right corner. The scoring pass was clearly forward, but Sam Hidalgo-Clyne showed good awareness to realise the replay official had not been called into action and before South African referee Stuart Berry could be alerted, he took a drop goal conversion attempt from the touchline which was never going to go over, but ensured that the try stood.

That was with six minutes gone and another two later they had a second about which there was no doubt, Jamie Ritchie making the initial inroads down the right before the ball was shifted quickly across the pitch where Jaco van der Walt fed fellow South African Duhan van der Merwe, who battered his way through attempted tackles by Tom Varndell and Rhys Jones en route to the line.

Fine work by Magnus Bradbury, who had already been prominent, produced the 19th minute turnover that set up their third, the flanker stripping the ball from Ryan Elias around halfway and van der Walt latching on to it before feeding Hidalgo-Clyne who, with a clear route to the line, was quick enough to cover the 45 metres in front of him.

Their four-try bonus point was registered in 23 minutes when a clever underhand off-load from Ben Toolis and quick hands from van der Walt, gave Chris Dean room to inject pace and he drew the last two defenders before delivering the ball to Bradbury for a try his all-round efforts richly deserved.

The Scarlets responded with tries from Varndell and Dan Jones before the break to reignite some doubt about the outcome, but Hidalgo-Clyne’s awareness in capitalising on a fine drive from his pack, then selling a dummy to make space and break across his 22, before delivering a perfectly weighted chip for van der Merwe to run on to effectively put them out of the Scarlets’ reach.

Some resilience was required as they endured a lengthy spell of pressure before capitalising on another turn-over, van der Walt releasing Mark Bennett who made good ground then fired a reverse pass at Cornell du Preez which was juggled but well held before the No 8’s inside pass sent Luke Crosbie clear.

In the final quarter Duncan Weir turned defence into attack once more, picking up the ball after a Scarlets attack broke down midway inside their half and jinking his way to the opposition 22 before finding Bennett arriving at pace and a cheeky set-piece lineout play saw Neil Cochrane send Nathan Fowles in for their eighth and final try in the last minute.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn (M Bennett 39); D Fife, J Johnstone, C Dean, D van der Merwe; J van der Walt (D Weir 61), S Hidalgo-Clyne (N Fowles 59); J Lay (A Dell 49), S McInally (N Cochrane 61), S Berghan (M McCallum 53), B Toolis, G Gilchrist (L Carmichael 60), M Bradbury, J Ritchie (L Crosbie 38), C du Preez

Scorers: Tries – Kinghorn, van der Merwe (2), Hidalgo-Clyne, Bradbury, Crosbie, Bennett, Fowles; Cons – Hidalgo-Clyne (5), Weir

Scarlets: R Jones (T Rogers 59), T Varndell, I Nicholas, S Hughes, R Conbeer (C Baldwin 41); D Jones, A Davies (J Evans 59); D Evans (P Price 50), R Elias, W Kruger (S Gardiner 58), S Cummins (J Helps 18), D Bulbring, L Rawlins (T Davies 66), J Macleod (S Evans 59), W Boyde

Scorers: Tries – Varndell, D Jones; Cons – D Jones (2)

Referee: S Berry (South Africa)

Attendance - 3849