Edinburgh 37-7 Kings: Richard Cockerill's side return to winning ways
Last Updated: 05/01/18 10:04pm
Edinburgh got back to winning ways with a comfortable 37-7 bonus-point win over hapless Southern Kings at Myreside.
The South African side, newcomers to the Guinness PRO14 this season, have lost all 11 of their matches so far this season and the result was once more never in doubt.
Grant Gilchrist showed a brilliant deftness of touch to score the first try before Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe touched down and Cam Fenton secured the bonus point late on as Edinburgh temporarily closed the gap on third-placed Ulster.
It was obvious before the first whistle that this was not going to be a free-flowing encounter due to conditions.
With heavy rain falling prior to kick-off - and the Myreside pitch already cutting up - it was unsurprisingly a scrappy opening.
The South African visitors dominated early possession but were unable to make it count as Kurt Coleman pulled his penalty marginally to the left, and he was made to pay as Jaco van der Walt finally opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
That seemed to open the floodgates as Edinburgh gradually asserted their dominance before forcing a defensive mistake to touch down.
It was Gilchrist who was on hand to charge down a box kick from Rudi van Rooyen, and then produced a brilliant prod to knock the ball past the final defender and dive down over the line.
The lead was extended to 15 just after the half-hour mark as Kinghorn started a sweeping move inside his own half, breaking the defence before latching onto a deflected Chris Dean grubber and diving down for a second try.
The hosts did enough to keep their winless opponents at arm's length for the rest of the half.
Kinghorn, by far the most threatening player with ball in hand, again looked as though he was going to touch down after scything through the Kings defence shortly after the restart, and debutant Mark Bennett also produced a brilliant run to set up a further three points for Van der Walt.
The game was effectively wrapped up on the hour mark as Edinburgh camped themselves on the Kings line before the fly-half flung a long pass out to Van der Merwe, who had the simple task of running it in.
Torrential rain in the final quarter failed to prevent Edinburgh securing a bonus point as Fenton bundled over from a rolling maul, before Ntabeni Dukisa added a late consolation and Dougie Fife capped off the win in style.
