Mistakes cost Edinburgh the points

Edinburgh 10 Cardiff 21

Cardiff Blues cruised to victory at Murrayfield as Edinburgh Gunners saw their Celtic League title dream wrecked by their own carelessness.

Interception touchdowns by Jamie and Nicky Robinson left the home side stranded – the pair grabbing 16 points between them.

The Gunners had gone into the match knowing only a victory would keep their campaign alive. But there was no way backafter the double setback.

The home side had the bulk of the territory and possession during the opening stages, but they scarcely looked capable of making an early breakthrough.

Conditions were tricky in the wake of a series of squally showers in the build-up to kick-off – but there really was no excuse for Scotland breakaway forward Simon Taylor spilling the ball 18 metres from the target.

Both sides were also showing distinct signs of nerves and the Gunners were probably guilty of trying to be too elaborate instead of sticking to basics.

For their part, Cardiff were showing little ambition in terms of putting together phases and wee content to kick aimlessly downfield at every opportunity.

It took them 30 minutes to even make an appearance in the opposition 22, when centre Jamie Robinson was hauled down at the end of a 40-metre burst following a quickly-taken tapped penalty for offside against Simon Webster.

Edinburgh hit back with a sequence of raids, and their confidence was underlined when they opted to kick a spate of penalies to touch rather than going for goal points – and they paid a hefty price as the gamble backfired.

They found themselves 14 points adrft at the break – and to add insult to injury, they were up against 14 men when the damage was done.

Maama Molitika was sin-binned and almost immediately Jamie Robinson latched on to a loose pass inside his own danger-zone to romp virtually the whole length of the pitch for a simple interception score.

Even worse was to come for the Gunners as prop Gethin Jenkins powered through in the wake of clever work by winger Chris Czekaz. Both tries were converted by Nicky Robinson – leaving the Scots with a mountain to climb.

To add to Edinburgh’s problems, thy lost the services of Test pair Mikey Blair and Ally Kellock who both went off injured.

Chris Paterson launched the salvage act a minute after the restart with a penalty close to the posts.

Then Ally Hogg battled across for a superb try after slick interplay featuring substitute Rory Lawson and Taylor – Paterson converting to reduce the gap to four points.

But the revival came to an abrupt halt when they were again the victims of their own carelessness.

This time it was Nicky Robinson who pounced on a poor pass on halfway. He played a great one-two with Rhys Williams before touching down to give himself the formality of a kick.

Molitika was then sent packing for good, receiving his second yellow card for deliberately killing the ball on the deck.