Edinburgh 24 - 20 Llanelli Scarlets: Far from perfect, but Edinburgh do the job

The Capital outfit scored tries by Tim Visser – his eighth of the season – and Roddy Grant for the victory that enhances hopes of a top-four finish and a coveted play-off spot and that was something they would surely have accepted, if offered, beforehand.

But, at the same time, there were flaws with the tries conceded to Phil John and Andy Furnby both soft and easily defended; the really good news is that nobody knew it better than a relieved Rennie who is now back in the form that earned him a Scotland cap against Ireland in 2008 before injury struck.

"It's great when you win a game and (still) have plenty to work on and I think that was where we were at," said Rennie of a match where the goal-kicking of Phil Godman in landing three penalties, a conversion and drop goal was the decisive factor.

Such a feet-on-the-ground attitude from Rennie to what was the fourth straight home success surely bodes well but there were mitigating factors to take into account.

Most notably Edinburgh were disrupted by late changes which saw centre Nick De Luca (groin) and Ben Cairns (hamstring) both withdraw as did Scotland second row Jim Hamilton (back). That means the likes of Hamilton, having trained all week to start at full back, was the subject of a sudden switch to midfield while Mark Robertson got his first start for Edinburgh at full back as opposed to wing.

"It was a bit disjointed and we were a team that hadn't played a lot together. There were a few silly errors so hopefully next week will be better," said Rennie in setting the scene for Friday's trip to Connacht for a side who have dropped from second to third in the table on account of Munster's win over Glasgow.

He added: "It's a disjointed time of the year post-Six Nations, hopefully we will get a bit more consistency now. We were a bit slack at times and lucky to get away with it. Occasionally we could have played in better areas and at times there were a couple of silly mistakes, ball handling errors which kind of killed us a bit.

"We made some breaks but were not clinical enough in our finishing which let us down at times."

If that seemed a downcast assessment Rennie was also eager to stress that Edinburgh are in a position to attack a play-off place, saying: "We are obviously pleased to win but the dressing room is still a little bit flat which is a positive because we know we could have played better.

"We did get a bit panicky (when Scarlets cut the gap to four points with a converted try 12 minutes out). At the same time, with our side maturing, we are able to close games out better than we have before.

"The big thing is if you are in front it is the other team that is under pressure. That's the big thing we have to get in our mindset," Rennie went on. "When ahead we have to put the pressure on them." Rennie also paid tribute to try-hero Visser whose strike came immediately after the interval.

"Tim is a bit fast man who it is really good to have in your team. We identified at half time that we could break through the middle. It was really good that we spoke about something and it came off."

That occurred through Mike Blair finding a gap and sprinting 40 yards upfield before kicking diagonally so that Robertson could offload for Visser to dive over from close range.

Off-loads were the key to slick handling Edinburgh's approach and the inter-passing was at times breathtakingly quick with Rennie and his back-row colleagues Alan MacDonald and man-of-the-match Grant at the heart of the exchanges.

While always seeking high standards if not perfection coach Rob Moffat was justified in remarking: "I probably shouldn't say it ... but we'll always make mistakes the way we try to play. People will always so 'there shouldn't been this or that offload then when it is done brilliantly everybody is quite happy."

The point Moffat was making was that so long as the risks are calculated Edinburgh can hope to come out ahead and what didn't help their cause was a series of inconsistent decisions by Irish referee Peter Fitzgibbon.

On one occasion Visser was extremely unlucky to be recalled for a dubious forward pass in midfield with the touch judge poorly position to make what is normally his call while 'feeding' to the Scarlets scrums and line-outs went unpunished throughout.

So, credit Edinburgh with rising above such difficulties even if coach Moffat gave the impression of a man not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the end.

"It was a sloppy performance. It's a good win and we need to keep winning at this stage," he said, before admitting: "We played some cracking rugby at times."

Central to that comment was the back row with Moffat acknowledging: "I'm not somebody who singles out players but MacDonald, Rennie and Grant ... if you take the best parts of them that is a good montage to show young players. Rennie is very critical of himself but he's always like that."

A penalty from Rhys Priestland gave Scarlets a short-lived lead equalised by Godman who added a further penalty then converted when Grant ran 40 yards to outstrip the cover.

Instead of going further ahead Edinburgh failed to re-group quickly enough allowing Phil John to saunter over, Priestland convering so that the hosts turned 13-10 ahead. Visser's unconverted try showed Edinburgh's true capabilities but still Scarlets couldn't be shaken off.

A penalty exchange made it 21-13 and there was relief when Godman knocked over a drop goal. However it was the Welshmen who had the last word with Andy Fenby stepping out of at least three tackles to cross for sub Dan Newton to convert.

Scorers:

Edinburgh: Tries: Grant, Visser; Conversion: Godman; Penalties: Godman (3). Drop goal: Godman.

Scarlets: Tries: John, Fenby; Conversions: Priestland, Newton; Penalties: Priestland (2).

Edinburgh: Robertson, Webster, Thompson, Houston, Visser, Godman (D Blair, 63 mins.), M Blair, captain (Laidlaw, 63), Traynor (Jacobsen, 53), Kelly (Ford, 53), Cross, Macleod, Turnbull (McKenzie, 66), MacDonald (Newlands, 65), Grant, Rennie.

Scarlets: Evans, Williams, King, Davies, Fenby, Priestland Newton, 52), Roberts (Knoyle, 52), Owens, (Rees, 36), Thomas, Welch, Day, Turnbull, Lyons, captain, Pugh (McCusker, 59)