Scarlets 9-14 Edinburgh: Storm Duhan wreaks havoc in Llanelli as van der Merwe sends Scots top

Duhan van der Merwe scored one and made one as Edinburgh defeated Scarlets to take top spot in PRO14 Conference B

He scored one and made one in a game where Edinburgh were outgunned most of the way through, but strong defence was enough to maintain the lead earned by those two tries.

A fifth victory in a row against the Scarlets was enough to put Edinburgh back on top of Conference B, with a crucial win at the home of one of their biggest rivals for top spot in that pool.

In particular the second half was an almost non-stop rearguard action, but they restricted the Scarlets to just three points despite most of the that period being played inside the Edinburgh 22.

No 8 Bill Mata was man-of-the-match for leading those defensive efforts, but the whole Edinburgh pack was strong with their tackling as conditions made it hard to attack wide.

“The second half, we didn't have the ball, we coughed it up and spent a huge amount of time in our own 22,” admitted Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill.

“Our defensive display across the board was very good. Callum Macrae, our defence coach, is a tenacious man and he works very hard at it. He should take the plaudits today because the defence won the game for us.

“It is a massive win. They are a good side, they are well coached, we were both missing lots of guys for obvious reasons. We have played them twice, we have taken nine points and they have one, which in our conference is pretty big.”

Storm Dennis was predicted to bring rain of biblical proportions, but this was not the same as last weekend's Calcutta Cup game and the rain eased to steady just before kick off.

Edinburgh were relieved because they were stronger on paper with 10 internationals in their side and six released from the current Scotland squad, compared to six internationals and two released for the home side.

Despite missing almost a complete international pack, Edinburgh were still able to field an experienced and powerful set of forwards which was always going to be crucial in such wet conditions.

The warm up was as much a test of swimming ability as rugby skills, only those with their bronze life saving badge were eligible for selection.

While the conditions should hardly have been alien for the Scots on the pitch, or Welsh for that matter, the South Africans showed themselves used to such things when Edinburgh left wing Duhan van der Merwe was on hand after back rower Nick Haining spotted space from a kick return.

The player who started for Scotland in Ireland handed on to Matt Scott who set his wing running with support in place, but van der Merwe just used them as decoys as he went 50 yards to score under the posts. Jaco van der Walt converted.

The Scarlets dominated territory for the rest of the half, not least because the Edinburgh kickers struggled to judge the tricky wind conditions, and they edged back to within a point thanks to a couple of Dan Jones penalties.

However Edinburgh managed to strike a crucial blow on the stroke of half time and again it was that man van der Merwe who proved the game breaker. He came in from the blind side wing to crash through near a scrum with inside centre Matt Scott in support to get the try. Van der Walt again converted from in front.

The other biggest cheer in the first half came from former Scotland captain and Scarlets favourite John Barclay warming up. His contribution to Scarlets success a couple of seasons ago is warmly remembered in West Wales and the crowd showed him that.

The Scarlets needed to score first in the second half to keep themselves in the game and they did just that when Jones notched his third penalty.

These were not exactly high-veldt conditions and van der Walt was struggling to read them, so it was not great surprise when he was replaced by Simon Hickey before the hour was up.

The Scarlets scrum was getting on top with replacement prop Javan Sebastian, who is Scottish qualified, playing his part for the home side.

But for all the huffing and puffing, they could not blow the Edinburgh house down.