Edinburgh won their Pool 2 Heineken Cup clash 19-12 largely thanks to the boot of Greg Laidlaw who racked up 14 points out of 19.

Ediburgh skipper Laidlaw switched to outside half for the return match at Murrayfield as he helped his team boss the first half to such an extent they took a 16 point lead into the dressing room.

The Blues, who were 25-8 winners at home, couldn't get their hands on the ball in the opening 40 minutes and were lucky that the home side butchered a number of scoring chances.

While Laidlaw was kicking the points, his back line were prising huge holes in the Blues defence and the only surprise was that only one try fell to flying wing Tim Visser. Laidlaw converted off the touchline and also added three penalties and a drop goal.

"We dug in really well and we are delighted with the win. The forwards gave us a great platform and options.Full credit to the Blues for setting out their stall to leave with nothing less than a bonus point," said Laidlaw.

Dan Parks, who had scored 20 points with his boot in the first fixture, picked up one penalty in the first half and then cut the deficit as the Blues forwards came more and more into the game after the break.

Xavier Rush led the fightback and two more Parks penalties put the visitors within range of a losing bonus point at least.

Then a tiring Edinburgh conceded another penalty 45 metres out and up stepped Leigh Halfpenny to hammer home a massive kick with two minutes left to play.

The Blues settled for that, even though Edinburgh's superior try count (10-5) took them back to the top of the Pool with both teams locked on 13 points.

Edinburgh Rugby 19 (19) Cardiff Blues 12 (3)

Scorers

Edinburgh
Try - T Visser
Conversion - G Laidlaw
Penalty - G Laidlaw (3)
Drop Goal - G Laidlaw

Cardiff Blues
Penalty - D Parks (3) , L Halfpenny

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)

Man of the Match: Netani Talei (Edinburgh Rugby)

Attendance: 4,384

Teams

Edinburgh Rugby: C Paterson; L Jones, N De Luca, J King (M Scott 74), T Visser (T Brown 74); G Laidlaw [capt], M Blair; A Jacobsen (K Traynor 79), R Ford (S Lawrie 74), G Cross (J Gilding 64), G Gilchrist (E Lozada 79), S Cox, D Denton, R Grant, N Talei (R Rennie 70)

Cardiff Blues: L Halfpenny; G Evans, C Laulala, J Roberts, C Czekaj (D Hewitt 41); D Parks, L Williams (R Rees 67); G Jenkins, T Thomas, T Filise (S Andrews 70), B Davies, P Tito [capt], M Paterson (M Molitika 48), S Warburton, X Rush

With thanks to ERCRugby.