A frustrated Scarlets had to be content with a losing bonus point from their trip to Edinburgh, going down 24-19 at Hive Stadium.
The West Walians raced into a 14-0 advantage midway through the second half thanks to tries from centre Joe Roberts and lock Sam Lousi, but a quickfire double thrust by the hosts, scoring two tries in three minutes at the start of the second half proved crucial.
Scarlets did draw level with a second try from the impressive Roberts, but an opportunist score from full-back Harry Paterson with 11 minutes to go secured the victory.
Skipper Josh Macleod, back from Wales duty, produced an outstanding individual display for the visitors, winning a string of brilliant turnovers, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to clinch what would have been a vital win to aid the side’s outside hope of making the play-offs.
Both sides looked to give the ball plenty of width in the opening quarter, but both were showing plenty of rustiness – unsurprisingly, given the extended break from URC action because of the Six Nations.
Eventually, on 22 minutes, it was Scarlets who struck first through Roberts.
A free-kick tap from scrum-half Archie Hughes saw the ball fed to the centre and he did well to straighten, dummy and outstrip the home defence for a free run to the line. Fly-half Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, in only his second URC start in the No. 10 jersey, converted.
It got better quickly for the West Walians, who doubled their advantage on 27 minutes.
Hughes was again the architect, going quickly from a penalty and racing upfield. The scrum-half fed Fletcher Anderson on his outside and with the Edinburgh rearguard stretched, a looping pass from Roberts found Max Douglas haring up in the outside channel. The Aussie flanker was brought down just short, but Lousi was on hand to pick up and squeeze over in the corner.
Leggatt-Jones nailed a superb touchline conversion and the Scarlets led 14-0.
However, Edinburgh struck back quickly with scrum-half Ben Vellacott racing over after Wes Goosen had broken the Scarlets defence on the counter.
Macleod produced a couple of trademark turnovers to keep the Scots at bay and Scarlets had further opportunities late on with a Leggatt-Jones drop goal attempt just drifting wide.
However, the second half saw Edinburgh fly out of the blocks, crossing for two superbly-crafted tries in the space of three minutes.
The bounce of the ball evaded Tomi Lewis at one end and it eventually led to player of the match Magnus Bradbury scoring at the other.
Edinburgh then put together their best move of the match which saw Vellacott haring over for his second of the night to move his side into a 19-14 lead.
Edinburgh full-back Harry Paterson was yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on after a great turnover from Marnus van der Merwe on his own line had prevented a fourth Edinburgh score.
Scarlets had a line-out drive held up over the line then made their possession pay with a miss-pass from Leggatt-Jones finding Roberts who showed good strength to touch down. Leggatt-Jones’s conversion drifted wide and the scores were level at 19-19 going into the final 17 minutes.
However, Paterson returned from the sin-bin to score the match-winning try, charging down Leggatt-Jones’s attempted downfield kick, picking up and racing to the line.
Next up for the Scarlets is another away test, a rescheduled match against Connacht in Galway on Friday, March 13.
Edinburgh – tries: B. Vellacott (2), M. Bradbury, H. Paterson. Cons: R. Thompson (2)
Scarlets – tries – J. Roberts (2), S. Lousi. Cons: C. Leggatt-Jones (2).
Scarlets: Jac Davies; Tom Rogers, Macs Page, Joe Roberts, Tomi Lewis (repl Ioan Jones 72); Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, Archie Hughes (repl Dane Blacker 54); Kemsley Mathias (repl Alec Hepburn 52), Marnus van der Merwe, Henry Thomas (repl Harri O’Connor 67), Jake Ball (repl Jac Price 64), Sam Lousi, Max Douglas (Jarrod Taylor 58), Josh Macleod (capt), Fletcher Anderson.
Referee: Peter Martin (IRFU)
Attendance: 6,657
Yellow card: Harry Paterson (56)