Bonus point win for Blues

Cardiff Blues scored a 29-22 bonus point win over Edinburgh in the RaboDirect Pro12 at Meggetland as Cory Allen scored two tries.

Matt Scott's early score had put Edinburgh ahead before man-of-the-match Allen crossed twice and Filo Paulo and Dan Fish also touched down for the visitors.

Edinburgh hit back through Tom Brown to set up a tense finish but Dafyd Hewitt clinched the bonus point with the Blues' fourth try before Cornell de Preez reduced Edinburgh's deficit late on.

The loss for the Scottish side all but ends their hopes of reaching the top six and a possible place in next season's European Rugby Champions Cup as they now lie six points behind Scarlets in sixth place after 18 matches.

Cardiff's second win in a row is another boost to a season that got off to an awful start. They are now up to ninth place, two points behind Edinburgh.

Edinburgh continue to play at Meggetland, home of Boroughmuir, due to the ongoing replacement of the Murrayfield pitch, and although they made a far from convincing start, they were 10-3 up in the 11th minute.

Twice they failed to receive kick-offs properly and the second time, they were punished by Cardiff, who converted pressure into a penalty, which Gareth Davies kicked.

Edinburgh equalised through Jack Cuthbert after Cardiff were penalised for dangerous play.

And after a lineout on the visitors' 22, a short pass from Harry Leonard set Scott on his way to touch down by the posts, Cuthbert converting.

Cardiff were level after 18 minutes when Allen got his first after an excellent burst from Kristian Dacey and Davies converted.

Cardiff enjoyed more possession as the half wore in and they got their second try seven minutes before the break.

After a quickly taken line out, they put the Edinburgh defence under huge pressure, putting a kickable penalty into the corner and they were rewarded when the line out drove over, lock Paulo getting the credit for the try, which was converted.

Then Cardiff extended their lead through full-back Fish within 90 seconds of the restart and Davies landed another conversion from out wide.

Edinburgh raised their game and after a couple of drives from David Denton, wing Brown scored in the corner, Cuthbert adding the conversion to trim Cardiff's lead to 24-17.

Cardiff struggled to regroup but eventually they found some forward momentum and pinned Edinburgh in their own half.

A clever pass from Allen gave substitute Hewitt the chance to score and put the game beyond Edinburgh for an unconverted try.

There was time left for Edinburgh to complete the scoring through de Preez, whose try was unconverted by Cuthbert.