Laidlaw obviously enjoys coming to Cardiff because he was in the side that beat the Blues in their last game at the Arms Park before they moved to Cardiff City Stadium, in the team that won the first competitive match at the Blues’ new home and then back in business at the Arms Park.
The Scottish side, who reached the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup last season, were the dominant side in the first-half, yet managed to go into the break 9-8 in arrears. They scored the only try of the opening 40 minutes, through the prolific Tim Visser, but suffered as Leigh halfpenny kicked three penalties.
Having clung on by their fingernails in the first-half, the Blues were much more convincing after the break and took full advantage when Edinburgh full back Greig Tonks was sent to the sin-bin as Alex Cuthbert crashed through the midfield defence to score a try at the posts.
Halfpenny’s conversion made it 16-8 and then the Wales full back swapped penalties with Laidlaw to make it 19-11 on the hour. At that stage the Blues looked like making it two out of two at the start of their RaboDirect PRO12 campaign, and making it a happy homecoming.
But a poor decision in midfield after a thrilling break by Tom James, choosing the inside pass to a more obvious outside one, led to Edinburgh turning over the ball, kicking down to the home line and creating enough pressure for back row man Josh Navidi to use his hands in the ruck on his own line and earn a 10 stretch on the touchline.
No sooner had Navidi departed than Edinburgh’s front row flexed their muscles and earned a penalty try which allowed Laidlaw to add the extras to cut the gap to a single point. There were penalty misses by Rhys Patchell and Ceri Sweeney for the home side shortly after Halfpenny limped out of proceedings with an injury to his right ankle before Laidlaw struck at the death.
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