Another home win for Edinburgh tonight but a late lapse in discipline may yet cost Edinburgh as it allowed Cardiff a losing bonus point, despite this being a game Edinburgh controlled for great periods.

Edinburgh’s try scoring machine Tim Visser was almost too eager in the first half and forced a few too many of the chances that came his way, but he was on the end of some pretty rubbish passing as well as a shoulder barge from Laulala that probably didn’t help his concentration. The one he did turn into a try was a mile forward from De Luca, but still, shan’t complain as it represented a period when Edinburgh dominated possession if not necessarily territory, and deserved to be ahead in the game.

Laidlaw good controlled the first half well and wasn’t afraid to tackle anyone, or run the ball. It was almost as if he was making a direct counter-argument to the Cardiff 10 Dan Parks who kicked a lot of possession. Indeed Laidlaw may emerge as an unlikely challenger to Parks for Scotland’s back-up if he keeps playing at fly-half.

Laidlaw said afterwards “the boys dug in really well and we’re delighted with the win, the forwards gave me good options and gave me a good platform. I like short options against a blitz D when I’m playing ten… we were able to pick them apart quite easily.”

Man of the match Talei was at the heart of the Edinburgh pack going forward; he was brought in to add ballast and he did just that, freeing up Roddy Grant to spoil Cardiff ball and keep their meaty pack from running rampant. Gilchrist and Denton were also handy and the defence was a lot more secure than last weekend in Cardiff.

The Cardiff fans muttered at half time about Parks; even his forwards may have muttered the odd thing too for an unsurprising over-reliance on the boot with mixed results. He wasn’t having a total stinker but was relieved of the kicking duties late in the game. Although to be fair the range was more Halfpenny’s cup of tea, and he confidently snatched the bonus point with a late penalty.

Parks had the last laugh in the match though, kicking the ball into the East stand (to resounding boos) after a period of keep-ball that saw Cardiff come away with probably the minimum they would have hoped for.

Laidlaw added, “Credit to Cardiff for getting the bonus point, if they couldn’t get a win they would get a bonus point and they did that.”

Edinburgh Coach Michael Bradley heralded a much improved performance: “The quality of work at the breakdown was much better and we were able to put huge pressure on Cardiff.” Because of Edinburgh’s dominance or at the least control in that area he felt “the rest of the game fell into place for large portions of the match. 3 wins out of 4 in this competition is not a bad start.”

Edinburgh are where they wanted to be; winning their home games and thus still in with a chance of getting out of the pool for the first time in years. However, with a last minute bonus point conceded again – Edinburgh have now conceded three – so are Cardiff.

Attendance 4,384

Edinburgh: Chris Paterson, Lee Jones, Nick De Luca, James King, Tim Visser, Greig Laidlaw (capt), Mike Blair, Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Geoff Cross, Grant Gilchrist, Sean Cox, David Denton, Roddy Grant, Netani Talei.
Replacements: Steven Lawrie, Kyle Traynor, Jack Gilding, Esteban Lozada, Ross Rennie, Phil Godman, Matt Scott, Tom Brown.

Cardiff Blues: Leigh Halfpenny; Gavin Evans, Casey Laulala, Jamie Roberts, Chris Czekaj; Dan Parks, Lloyd Williams; Gethin Jenkins, Rhys Thomas, Taufa’ao Filise, Bradley Davies, Paul Tito (capt), Michael Paterson, Sam Warburton, Xavier Rush.
Replacements: Ryan Tyrell, John Yapp, Scott Andrews, Josh Navidi, Maama Molitika, Richie Rees, Ceri Sweeney, Dafydd Hewitt.