Leinster 19 - 18 Edinburgh: Losing bonus point scant reward as Edinburgh come up just short

Edinburgh left Dublin with only a losing bonus point to show for their efforts in a game that was there for the taking. With 20 minutes to go Edinburgh had fought their way back to being 18-19 down, but they could not build or sustain possession or field position to give themselves any chance of the points that would have given them only a second away win in 12 attempts.

Rob Moffat, Edinburgh's head coach who was clearly exasperated and disappointed by the performance, said after the game "I wasn't too happy with us tonight. I thought it was a sloppy performance. We didn't really get the game going. For most of the game I thought Leinster controlled the match in terms of territory and possession. We only played in fits and starts and it's really the story of the season so far."

Moffat added: "When we are in contention we play well and it can be top notch; but it's not for long enough. Tonight Leinster had a few players missing and the other players that came in did well and did do a good job for them."

Regarding the losing bonus point Moffat said: "We got one point but that's not what we came for and we could have won it. But to be fair, I think if we had we would have sneaked it." Edinburgh had started the match brightly with an early break by John Houston before a great linking move involving Ross Rennie, Mike Blair and Roddy Grant saw them surge into the Leinster half. But the move was ended by a shrill blast of the whistle by Carlo Damasco after Grant held onto the ball on the floor. This was a familiar sound for the Edinburgh players who were on the wrong end of an 11-3 penalty count during the night.

Isa Nacewa opened the scoring for Leinster within five minutes with the first of his four penalties (he also missed a couple) after Edinburgh were pulled up for side entry at the breakdown.

Shortly after this Edinburgh did well to scrag the fastest man in the Leinster squad, 19-year-old wing Andrew Conway, after they launched an attack from deep towards the left corner flag. Rennie forced the turnover and Edinburgh survived the early scare.

Somewhat against the run of play Edinburgh scored the first try of the match. From a breakdown on their own ten-metre line Mike Blair looked up, noticed there was no Leinster sweeper at home and lobbed a kick over the top of their defensive line for left wing Tim Visser to chase. Visser was up against hooker but his main danger came from the left touchline. The Dutch winger brilliantly kept the ball in play with his left boot, toed it over the try line and dropped on the ball for the five points.Chris Paterson missed the wide out conversion.

Nacewa added his second penalty after Edinburgh went off their feet at the breakdown after a period of Leinster pressure. And the visitors would have added a second try not long after if Alex Grove's inside pass from a great weaving break had gone to hand; instead it was flapped away by the Leinster defence. But Edinburgh did take three points from this attack, after home tighthead Mike Ross was penalised for a squint drive at the scrum.

Edinburgh again did well to hold out young Conway after another wonderful Leinster attack, founded on solid line-out ball from Nathan Hines who put in a superb all round performance over the 80 minutes despite requiring treatment on three occasions.

Nacewa added his third penalty from this same spell of pressure. The half-time score was 9-8 to Leinster but Edinburgh had looked sharp in attack and were causing the home defence problems on the counter.

Leinster scored first in the second half through Conway. when, ten metres from the Edinburgh line, scrum-half O'Donohoe fed Hines. Hines took a few steps and just when it seemed he was about to get swallowed up by the Edinburgh defence he cleverly popped the ball short and soft to Conway who burst between the Blair brothers to score. Nacewa converted.

Edinburgh hit back straight away through a Paterson penalty, after a trapped Hines was harshly penalised for not releasing the man in the tackle. Nacewa returned the compliment after replacement prop David Young was sin-binned for being adjudged to have slapped the ball from O'Donohoe's hands at a maul. This pushed Leinster 19-11 ahead.

Edinburgh finished the scoring in the match with their second try to set up a tense final quarter. Alex Blair passed Ross Ford into the hole on the halfway line. Ford, who put in a great shift in the looseand with his accurate lineout throwing, covered 25 metres, and from the ensuing mini-ruck Mike Blair fed flat to Chris Paterson who raced home unopposed under the posts for the try that he converted.

Scorers: Leinster: Try: Conway. Con: Nacewa. Pens: Nacewa (4). Edinburgh: Tries: Visser, Paterson. Pen: Paterson 2. Con: Paterson.

Leinster: I Nacewa; S Horgan, E O'Malley, F McFadden, A Conway; I Madigan, P O'Donohoe; H van der Merwe, R Strauss, C Newland/M Ross, L Cullen (cpt), N Hines, D Ryan, S Jennings, S Keogh. Subs Used: R Ruddock, I Boss, S Berne.

Edinburgh: C Paterson; J Thompson, A Grove, J Houston, T Visser; A Blair, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, E Lozeda, N Talei, R Grant (cpt), R Rennie. Subs Used: K Traynor, D Young, C Hamilton, S Newlands, G Laidlaw, D Bishop, M Robertson.

Referee: C Damasco (Ita)

Attendance: 16,786