Edinburgh 16 Leinster 27: Edinburgh throw Murrayfield welcoming party for Leinster

THE ABILITY of Scottish rugby players to step up to the big stage was found wanting on Saturday and with autumn Test matches now carrying World Cup-seeding significance, this was not the Heineken Cup launch national coach Frank Hadden needed a month away from facing New Zealand.

He may have to wait longer for his exiled players to be available, but on the showings of Edinburgh and Glasgow at the weekend Hadden may need to deploy more of those outside these shores than inside against the All Blacks if there is not a sweeping improvement this week.

There was an almost tangential feel to the aftermath of Edinburgh's numbing defeat to Leinster, the talk swinging from the bizarre concession of not one, two or even three, but four soft tries to the anxious recall of positives, which flickered in good set-piece play, the control of parts of the game and, latterly, threatening attack.

Leinster had lost eight of nine competitive visits to Murrayfield, three in the Heineken Cup, and a fierce bid by the Dubliners to mark the 10th with success was expected. But, though their finishing and support play when handed gifts was exemplary, they were able to perform below their best again in the Scottish capital, but win comfortably on this occasion.

Unusually, Mike Blair, the Edinburgh captain, was as culpable as team-mates, and he admitted afterwards: "At half-time we were shocked and very disappointed.

Whenever we made a mistake, they capitalised and unfortunately we made four big mistakes and they scored four tries off it.

You have to learn week on week, but we're making the same mistakes and we have to stop that against Castres (on Saturday night]."

Remember the feeling when Italy scored three 'freaks' off the bat against Scotland at Murrayfield two years ago? The same emotions gripped the home fans among the 5,000-plus on Saturday, only this time it went on for longer, only ending when the half-time whistle allowed Edinburgh off the ropes.

The first blow stemmed from Rocky Elsom, a powerful and quick former Wallaby flanker, breaching poor ruck defence close to halfway and sprinting 40 metres to score. The second was a shocker for the match officials as well as Edinburgh's defence, a forward pass of over a metre from Luke Fitzgerald to Rob Kearney overlooked and young flankers Scott Newlands and Alan MacDonald – one of the few otherwise good performers – taking a Felipe Contepomi dummy at stand still on halfway and flailing at the fly-half as he broke to then feed Brian O'Driscoll, who eagerly shrugged off a tackle and raced 30 metres to score his first try in 21 months.

With five minutes of the first half remaining, O'Driscoll ducked inside Blair in his own 22 and hared upfield, before returning the compliment and sending Contepomi in, and then Shane Horgan finished a bout of almost uncontested inter-passing on the right involving Jamie Heaslip, the No8, and Girvan Dempsey.

The Murrayfield mood was helped little by Chris Paterson hitting the target to add to Phil Godman's early 45-metre penalty.

The hosts were, however, thrown a lifeline five minutes into the second half when Jim Hamilton, the lock marking his home debut with a terrific all-action display, galloped into the Leinster 22. Blair threw a wide pass with a try inevitable, but Contepomi intercepted while offside and referee Debney, on consulting his assistant, sin-binned Contepomi and gave a penalty try. Crucially, however, 14-man Leinster controlled the next ten minutes, even missing a penalty, and when Debney opted against another penalty try – when another certain score was denied by a Chris Whitaker knock-on – and Edinburgh garnered only three more points from Paterson, there was no way back for the hosts.

The frustration was too much for Robinson, the Edinburgh coach, who stormed out of the stand and had to be 'encouraged' to leave the touchline by officials. Matt Mustchin then tripped Kearney, and was sin-binned, Contepomi converted that penalty and for all Edinburgh's attack then uncovered the dynamism, direction and accuracy so lacking in the first half, it was too late to salvage even a bonus point against as streetwise a team as Leinster.

Later the result filtered in from Newport, adding insult to injury for Scottish rugby. Neither Edinburgh nor Glasgow are as bad as the weekend suggested, but only wins over French sides Castres and Toulouse respectively will prove that this week.

Scorers: Edinburgh: Tries: Pen try; Pens: Godman, Paterson 2; Con: Paterson. Leinster: Tries: Elsom, O'Driscoll, Contepomi, Horgan; Pen: Contepomi; Cons: Contepomi 2.

Edinburgh: C Paterson; M Robertson, H Southwell, N De Luca, S Webster; P Godman, M Blair (capt); A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, M Mustchin, J Hamilton, S Newlands, A Hogg, A MacDonald. Subs used: B Gissing for J Hamilton 59mins, C Hamilton for Newlands 72, D Blair for Southwell 78.

Leinster: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, L Fitzgerald, R Kearney; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; S Wright, B Jackman, CJ van der Linde, L Cullen (capt), D Toner, R Elsom, J Heaslip, S Jennings. Subs used: C Healy for Wright 40mins, T Hogan for Toner 65, J Fogarty for Jackman 74, J Sexton for O'Driscoll 79.

Attendance: 5,376.

Referee: R Debney (England)