After finally claiming his first win of 2007 at Murrayfield last night Andy Robinson, Edinburgh's head coach, admitted to substantial relief.

That statistic may, in itself, be slightly false, since he was out of the game for a year up to October, when he joined Edinburgh, whose only previous win this season was against Ulster before his arrival.

However, having guided sides to World Cup and Heineken Cup victories in the past, Robinson did not shy away from acknowledging the psychological importance of a victory over the second-placed team in the Magners League, his side having begun the game second bottom.

"It's been an interesting couple of years for me as a coach," mused the man who was hounded out of his last job with England. "So I was a little bit nervy out there, but it's not about coaches, it's about players, and they pleased me today because there were some questions left in the last 20 or 25 minutes and they answered them."

He identified Mike Blair, who captained the side, for particular praise along with David Callam, who led the pack, as well as his fellow back-row men Ross Rennie and Roly Reid, while noting that Phil Godman and Matt Dey had both been impressive as replacements.

While Andrew Maxwell started the match he, too, had not been a first choice for this match, only getting into the side when Simon Webster withdrew after failing a fitness test due to a back injury, but also delighted the coach with the way he seized his opportunity in scoring the try that started to turn the game his team's way half an hour into the game.

The winger was man enough to admit, however, that there had been an element of luck in how that arose as he flew onto the ball directly from a Scarlets re-start when they attempted to catch Edinburgh out by kicking away from their forwards.

"I wasn't paying attention until Nick De Luca shouted that the ball was coming my way," he revealed afterwards.

"They had tried to be smart kicking it that way and it probably helped that I did not realise until late that it was coming, because in normal circumstances I would have been waiting under the ball."

Instead, almost shocked into action, he was at full tilt on fielding the ball more than 60 metres from the Scarlets try-line, broke a tackle close to halfway, fended off another as he went past the 22 line and still had enough momentum to slide through a double tackle and score on the left.

To that point Edinburgh had struggled to impose themselves, spending little time in the opposing half, having been rather too passive in the contact areas. They had opened the scoring with a David Blair penalty in two minutes, but then spent most of the first quarter defending their line before Jon Davies finally blasted a way through to put Regan King in for the game's opening try.

Rhys Priestland missed the conversion and a subsequent long-range penalty attempt which meant Blair was able to nudge his side back in front against the run of play with a second penalty.

From the re-start Maxwell produced his solo effort and Edinburgh seemed to grow in confidence. Blair's third penalty extended their lead, but it was the Scarlets' turn to switch things around as some slick handling sent King into the left corner for his second try.

When, early in the second half, the one time All Black centre latched onto Priestland's deft chip into the right corner to complete his hat trick and reclaim the lead at 17-14, Edinburgh might have got jittery, but with Godman coming off the bench to kick a couple of penalties, they re-asserted themselves. Dey's powerful blast through the midfield, then floated pass let De Luca score their second try and they closed the game out efficiently.

Phil Davies, the Scarlets' coach, whose side has never won in six competitive visits to the Scottish capital, later admitted to some frustration, particularly since they won the try count 3-2, but overall Edinburgh were well worth what was a much needed win.

Edinburgh H Southwell; A Turnbull, N De Luca, J Houston (M Dey 40), S Webster; D Blair (P Godman 50), M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, C Smith (A Allori 52), M Mustchin, B Gissing, R Reid, R Rennie, D Callam
Scarlets D Evans; D Daniel, R King, J Davies (Gavin Evans 61), Garan Evans; R Priestland, L Davies (G Cattle 77); P John (I Thomas 46), J Hayter, B Douglas, A Eustace, S Macleod, J Bater (D Jones 46) (P John 67-73), S Easterby, N Thomas
Referee G Clancy (Ireland)
Scorers. Edinburgh: Tries Maxwell, De Luca Con Godman Pen D Blair (3), Godman (2) Scarlets: Tries King (3) Con Priestland