Edinburgh dominate Cardiff to keep up play-off bid

United Rugby Championship: Cardiff v Edinburgh

Cardiff (0) 7

Try: Carre Con: De Beer

Edinburgh (7) 24

Tries: Schoeman, Ashman, Venter Cons: Healy 3 Pen: Healy

Edinburgh produced a dominant display to ease past Cardiff at the Arms Park in the United Rugby Championship.

Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman and Boan Venter all crossed from close range in a game of few scoring chances.

Rhys Carre hit back on his last home game to briefly level the scores early in the second half.

But that was not enough to save a below-par Cardiff from losing a seventh league game in a row for the first time in nine years.

Edinburgh maintained their recent good form against Welsh opposition with a sixth successive win that kept them in the play-off hunt.

Duhan van der Merwe was sin binned, but the visitors were worthy winners after dominating this tightly contested game to silence a bumper 11,200-crowd.

Ellis Jenkins' Arms Park farewell typified his injury-riddled career when it was cut short by injury.

Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt was forced to watch this game from the stand after being hit with a touchline ban before kick-off.

It followed an "interaction" with Scottish referee Mike Adamson following Cardiff's late defeat by Ulster last week.

A further five-game ban was suspended, along with a £7,500 in fines, after Sherratt admitted his actions were "not appropriate".

Any grievance with the decision was washed away by a tide of emotion with Saracens-bound Carre and retiring Jenkins making their last Arms Park appearances.

But Jenkins' day lasted just 26 minutes following a knock to the head in trying to deny Shoeman's opening try from close range, converted by the league's top scorer Healy.

Van Der Merwe was alert to snuff out Cam Winnett's clever kick for Theo Cabango before half-time.

But the Scotland wing got his technique all wrong with a high tackle on his opposite number than brought a yellow card just three minutes into the second half.

Cardiff levelled the scores from the next play as on-loan scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou looped around a line-out to send Carre storming through and Tinus De Beer converted.

Van der Merwe made amends just moments after returning from the sin bin, chasing down Mason Grady who looked odds on to score after Alex Mann's break caught Edinburgh napping as they waited for a whistle that never came.

Edinburgh, nevertheless, were bigger and stronger and dominated possession, but struggled to make it count in a stop-start game until hooker Ashman finished a line-out drive on 62 minutes.

Healy converted and added a penalty after Mark Bennett dropped a golden chance to score before prop Venter crashed over late to seal a deserved win.

Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt said: "That wasn't our best game by a long way and when you have that power coming at you for 80 minutes, it's going to tell in the end.

“They kept coming at us and we allowed them to do that. We had to find a way to put some pressure on them and we didn’t kick well.

“Our job is to find a way of playing that suits us. Power isn’t everything, you can use speed and deception, but we have to find a way of imposing ourselves on the game."

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt said: "The race for the play-offs is a real pressure cooker so we have to stay in touch by simply winning.

"Edinburgh doesn't win many away games so this was a great result. Perhaps we're disappointed not to get the bonus point because every point may count.

"But we knew there would be a lot of emotion here with two players making their last home game and we dealt with that well.

"We are improving every week, we have players returning from injury and we're a team on the rise."

Cardiff: Cam Winnett; Harri Millard, Mason Grady, Ben Thomas, Theo Cabango; Tinus de Beer, Gonzalo Bertranou; Rhys Carre, Liam Belcher (capt), Keiron Assiratti, Ben Donnell, Teddy Williams, Alex Mann, Ellis Jenkins, Mackenzie Martin.

Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Corey Domachowski, Ciaran Parker, Rory Thornton, Thomas Young, James Botham, Ellis Bevan, Jacob Beetham.

Edinburgh: Wes Goosen; Emiliano Boffelli, Matt Currie, James Lang, Duhan van der Merwe; Ben Healy, Ali Price; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, WP Nel, Sam Skinner, Grant Gilchrist (capt), Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Luke Crosbie.

Replacements: Dave Cherry, Boan Venter, Javan Sebastian, Marshall Sykes, Viliame Mata, Ben Vellacott, Mark Bennett, Chris Dean.

Sin bin: van der Merwe (43)

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

Assistant referees: Elgan Williams, Mike English (WRU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)