Ben Toolis crossed over late on to move Edinburgh closer to the GUINNESS PRO12 top four with the narrowest of victories over Scarlets.

Edinburgh came into the game off the back of four consecutive defeats – all on the road – and home comforts were evident in the early stages as Phil Burleigh crossed over.

The Scarlets, who began the day six points behind GUINNESS PRO12 leaders Connacht, responded well and grabbed three first-half tries, through Hadleigh Parkes, James Davies and Steffan Evans, to lead at the break.

However, Edinburgh are not easily beaten at BT Murrayfield – they have lost there just once there in all competitions this season – and despite seeing Burleigh have a second try chalked off, second-row Toolis crossed over late on for a 24-23 triumph.

Edinburgh began on top and their pack won an early penalty, allowing teenager Blair Kinghorn to fire over a long-range effort and hand the hosts a three-point lead.

Aled Thomas levelled things up three minutes later but it wasn’t long before Edinburgh had the game’s first try, Burleigh sniping around the ruck to cross over under the posts and Kinghorn adding the simple conversion.

Once again, Thomas swiftly responded with a successful penalty, after Jamie Ritchie was penalised at the ruck and shortly after the quarter-hour mark, his side were in front.

Parkes showed great awareness to pounce on a loose ball and sprint into space, eventually travelling almost half the length of the pitch to score, though Thomas sent the extras wide.

Kinghorn’s second penalty put Edinburgh 13-11 after 22 minutes and while Thomas missed one of his own shortly after, he wasn’t left fretting over it for long.

Davies picked a gap and powered through it to cross the Edinburgh line, though Thomas’ bad luck with the boot continued as his extras struck the crossbar.

That left Edinburgh three points behind but, five minutes before the break, that deficit stretched to ten when Evans found his way over in the corner and Thomas converted.

Kinghorn powered over a long-range penalty on the stroke of half time and, shortly after it, he added another three points after Edinburgh’s pack earned a scrum penalty.

The lead looked to have changed hands again after 48 minutes when Burleigh scurried over but the TMO adjudged the fly-half to have benefitted from a double movement.

They pushed a probed but found a stubborn Scarlets defence standing in their way, until replacement Magnus Bradbury shook off a handful of defenders to take them within touching distance of the line.

Toolis did the rest and, despite Kinghorn’s conversion bouncing back off the post, Edinburgh had the lead with just ten minutes to play.

Thomas sought to address that, only for the Scarlets fly-half to send a penalty wide of the target, and that proved to be their last chance of the match.

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