Leinster rely on life of Brian

Brian O'Driscoll scored one try and set up another as Leinster opened their Heineken Cup campaign with a 27-16 win over Edinburgh.

The Irish side appeared to have the Pool Two game sewn up after the first 40 minutes, surging out to a 24-6 lead against their Magners League rivals.

However, they failed to add to their tally after the interval until 10 minutes from the end when Felipe Contepomi's penalty put paid to the home side's brave comeback bid.

In the end Edinburgh's downfall had been their inability to turn pressure into points in an opening half that saw them only get on the board through penalties from Phil Godman and Chris Paterson.

Capitalised

Leinster, by contrast, capitalised every time they got a scent of the try line, scoring four times in the space of 20 minutes to blow the game wide open.

Rocky Elsom grabbed the first, the Australian just about having enough gas in the tank to reach the line, before O'Driscoll took over proceedings.

The Ireland captain looked anything but past his best when he showed a fine turn of pace to accept Contepomi's offload and run in under the posts after the officials had missed a forward pass at the very start of the move.

He then turned from scorer to provider, a stunning dart from deep inside his own territory ending with him returning the favour to Argentine Contepomi.

The assist was vintage O'Driscoll, the centre side-stepping past two closing tacklers before bursting through a gap that had been all of his own making.

Edinburgh were on the ropes when Shane Horgan dived in at the right corner to wrap up the bonus before the break, but, to their credit, they battled bravely to try and claw their way back.

Sin-binning

They were given a ray of hope by Contepomi's sin-binning after 50 minutes, the number 10 penalised for playing the ball in an offside position when a home try looked a certainty.

English referee David Pearson had little option but to award a penalty try, Paterson converting to close the gap to 11 points, but the official opted not to take similar action when scrum-half Chris Whitaker knocked on a try-scoring pass.

Instead Pearson awarded no more than a penalty which Paterson kicked, and that proved to be as close as Edinburgh got in their comeback bid.

Lock Matt Mustchin's sin-binning for tripping full-back Robert Kearney allowed Contepomi to put the final nail in the coffin with three points that sealed Leinster's first win in the Scottish capital in their last five trips.