Sean Everitt admits he needed to introduce his star men in the front row at half time after a frustrating first period where they struggled at the set piece.

Edinburgh had been impressive in the lineout prior to Saturday night and had the best record of any team in the URC before the game.

But it was a real struggle against Scarlets in the first half and they needed to introduce Pierre Schoeman, WP Nel and Ewan Ashman to the team at the start of the second half.

It inspired a much improved performance as they dominated the second period and ended up running out comfortable 43-18 victors on the night against their Welsh opposition.

It was the kind of showing Everitt was delighted with and he wants to see more of it moving forward as they try to get an 80 minute showing, but he reckons his players are hitting form at the right time.

They move into the play-off spots in the league after getting just their second bonus point victory of the season and Everitt said: “We knew we could get ascendancy up front. Unfortunately in the first half we didn’t get the opportunity with the number of lineouts that the Scarlets disrupted of ours and stole.

“It was a difficult first half for us, I think we had 10 lineouts and only one clean delivery and by that I mean from the ball being thrown in until the first breakdown. The lads sorted out the lineout strategy at half time and we got momentum with the front row coming on and playing an integral part in the power game.

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“The second half is pleasing because it’s everything we spoke about during the week. We chatted about our discipline and that improved tremendously. We only gave away two penalties in the first half and three in the second half so that does help.

“When we got into the 22 in the second half we managed to score and the boys were patient with ball in hand, the forwards did a good job building pressure on the defence and that’s something we didn’t do in the first 40. We had seven entries into their 22 and only managed to score once. It’s a good review for us on Monday if we can get the small things right we can win comfortably.

“We talk about resilience and putting together performances. It’s not an 80 minute performance and we seem to be talking about that a lot. We can certainly build on the second 40.

“There were some good individual performances, Wes Goosen was man of the match and was a threat on the counter attack. I thought our kicking game was good, Jamie Ritchie was outstanding and it was one of his better games for the club so things are looking up for us at an important part of the season.

“We’re sitting in eighth now. We didn’t bank on the Ospreys beating the Stormers in Cape Town to put a spanner in the works but destiny is in our own hands and we need to keep winning and put in performances week in, week out from now on.”

Duhan van der Merwe was replaced in the second half after picking up a knee injury in contact and he looked to be limping as he came off but Everitt looked to ease worries and revealed he wanted to keep going.

It’s a position where they have injury worries but Emiliano Boffelli and Harry Paterson are close to a return and that will boost them going into the final weeks.

He added: “We’re not pushing him through, he said he was able to continue. He got a bang on his knee so it’s a contact injury so hopefully it’s not too bad and hopefully he can recover in time for next week. We’re thin in those areas as we all know which is why Matt Currie played on the wing but this is team which needs to show resilience during difficult times and adversity.

“We do have [Emiliano] Boffelli and Harry Paterson back in the next couple of weeks. I don’t know if they will be ready on Monday or Tuesday for selection but it does bode well for the future.”