United Rugby Championship: Scarlets 42-14 Edinburgh - hosts score six tries in victory

Scarlets restored some pride back into Welsh rugby with a six-try demolition of Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship.

In a week where players threatened strike action in a dispute over contracts, Scarlets played with a swagger that lit up Llanelli.

There were tries from Ryan Conbeer, Vaea Fifita, Steff Evans, Gareth Davies and Eddie James.

Murray McCallum and Boan Venter crossed for the visitors.

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Scarlets were led by the departing Sione Kalamafoni and played with a confidence fitting of their recent run of form, with Dwayne Peel's side now having won eight of their past nine games.

They made a blistering start in front of a good capacity crowd, with two tries inside the opening 15 minutes.

The first came straight off the training field. A well-worked set piece saw Johnny McNicholl release Conbeer on the wing and he was brought down short, but wriggled an arm free to stretch the ball over the line. Costelow added the extras.

Scarlets were almost in again after some good hands created an overlap, but Steff Evans fumbled the ball on his wing.

But they were not to be denied when Fifita intercepted a long-range pass in the Edinburgh half, with the New Zealand flanker showing searing pace to run in 70 metres unopposed.

Costelow was again on target with the conversion.

Edinburgh hit back on one of their first visits to the Scarlets 22, McCallum crashing over from short range after a series of pick-and-goes from the forwards. Savala nailed the touchline conversion.

Scarlets were soon back in the ascendancy and back in the Edinburgh half with a five-metre scrum to attack from.

The chance of a third try looked to have gone begging after they coughed up possession, but Sam Lousi, ever the opportunist, picked the pocket of scrum-half Charlie Shiel who was preparing to kick clear from the ruck.

The try was initially awarded, but a review by the Television Match Official found Lousi to have come from an offside position.

Scarlets made no mistake when another opportunity presented itself minutes later, with Lousi once again at the heart of it. The giant Tongan shrugged off some weak tackling before offloading to Evans who made amends for his earlier handling error to touch down.

Costelow added the conversion from in front of the posts, with his side chasing a bonus point after just half an hour played.

They would have to wait until after the break, but the fourth try came five minutes after the interval, with arguably the pick of the bunch.

Scarlets wing Steff Evans has scored 69 tries in his 168 career appearances for the region

Scarlets attacked from a scrum with Evans looping around replacement fly-half Dan Jones before shipping the ball out to McNicholl who once again released Conbeer on his wing.

Jones added the conversion from the touchline.

Fifita could have bagged a second himself soon after, racing clear after an offload from McNicholl, but instead of touching down he gifted the ball to Davies who will not score an easier try all season.

Jones extended Scarlets' lead from the tee.

Edinburgh, to their credit, kept plugging away and were rewarded with a try on the hour mark, Venter powering over from close range, with Savala adding the conversion.

The tempo dipped as both sides emptied their benches, with the crowd giving warm applause to Scotland international Javan Sebastian after a minute's silence was held before kick-off following the recent death of his mother.

Scarlets continued to throw the ball around, with their evening capped by a try from James on his debut.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: "I'm obviously pleased with the performance and the result.

"We prepared really well for this game. Over the last two weeks the boys have trained really hard. There has been a good feeling here and we saw that today on the field.

"We were physical when we needed to be, we gave a big performance defensively and were clinical.

"There were times when we were a bit loose with the ball, but overall very pleased and it's good to carry on the momentum."

Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair said: "We were not even at the races were we?

"We spoke before the game about effort and physicality being key to winning the game and I felt we were off it for some reason.

"We are in this together, all the management, players, the coaches, but that was our poorest performance of the season.

"The good bit or the frustrating bit is that a lot of it is easy to fix, being proactive in and around the breakdown.

"Dwayne Peel did a great job getting that team motivated, channelling the disappointments happening around the contract situation. They looked like an excellent team tonight."

Scarlets: Johnny McNicholl; Steff Evans, Joe Roberts, Ioan Nicholas, Ryan Conbeer; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Kemsley Mathias, Shaun Evans, Sam Wainwright, Morgan Jones, Sam Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Dan Davis, Sione Kalamafoni (capt).

Replacements: Taylor Davies, Steff Thomas, Javan Sebastian, Ben Williams, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Dane Blacker, Dan Jones, Eddie James.

Edinburgh: Wes Goosen; Damien Hoyland, Mark Bennett, James Lang, Jack Blain; Charlie Savala, Charlie Shiel; Boan Venter, Adam McBurney, Murray McCallum, Glen Young, Jamie Hodgson, Nick Haining, Hamish Watson (capt), Viliame Mata.

Replacements: Paddy Harrison, Jamie Jack, Lee-Roy Atalifo, Marshall Sykes, Connor Boyle, Ben Vellacott, Jaco van der Walt, Chris Dean.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant referees: Jason Bessant & Simon Mills (WRU)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)