Edinburgh beat Dragons as Van der Merwe shines on return

And before the break the home crowd thought they had more reason to cheer when an Edinburgh attack broke down and Rio Dyer picked up the loose ball and sped 80 metres to the line, only to be denied by TMO intervention with O'Brien deemed to have knocked on as he made a defensive hit in the build-up.

It proved a crucial moment, and instead of moving two scores clear Dragons were left having to deal with an Edinburgh scrum near their own line.

Sure enough, a strong carry from Currie set up a period of pressure which culminated in the number eight himself going under the posts to give the visitors a 14-10 lead at the break.

Van der Merwe powers over after sin-bin drama

Just moments after the restart the pendulum swung again as Dragons produced arguably their best score of the season.

A strong run from deep from the outstanding Young set the platform, and Tinus de Beer's grubber kick was brilliantly picked up by Dyer who sped down the left before combining with Rhodri Williams - who in turn gave the scoring pass to Keddie and the flanker dived over out wide.

The see-saw action continued though, and from a neat blind-side move Edinburgh hit back as scrum-half Hector Patterson and Thompson combined to put Van der Merwe over out wide.

That prompted an immediate response from Dragons, but despite having replacement Dylan Richardson sin-binned for cynical foul play the away side survived being a man down for 10 minutes.

With 15 minutes to go Edinburgh were again down to 14 with another replacement, Boan Venter, guilty of making head contact with Aneurin Owen.

Dragons thought they had capitalised when Elliot Dee touched down from close range, only to suffer more TMO frustration with the try again ruled out for an earlier knock-on.

To add salt into the wounds, before Venter returned to the field Edinburgh sealed the win as diagonal run from Charlie Shiel teed up Van der Merwe from 25 metres out, and despite having plenty to do Scotland's record try-scorer shrugged off four tackles and seared over.

Edinburgh wing Duhan van der Merwe told Premier Sports: "It has been a while but it's great to be back out with the boys and enjoying what i do again. First-half did not really go my way but I got a bit of luck in the second-half - especially against a team like Dragons who never go away."

Line-ups

Dragons: O'Brien (co-capt); Dyer, Inisi, Owen, J Rosser; de Beer, R Williams; Martinez, Coghlan, Lewis, S Davies, Carter (co-capt), Keddie, Young, Wainwright.

Replacements: Dee, R Jones, Coleman, Screech, Woodman, Armstrong, Ackerman, Anderson.

Edinburgh: Paterson; Graham, Tuipulotu, Thomson, van der Merwe; Thompson, Patterson; Schoeman, Ashman, Blyth-Lafferty, Hunter-Hill, Gilchrist (capt), Young, Douglas, Currie.

Replacements: Richardson, Venter, Hill, Sykes, McConnell, Bradbury, Shield, O'Conor.

Referee: Filippo Russo (Italy)

Assistants: Marcus Candle & Lucas Yendle (Wales)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (Italy)