NEWPORT Gwent Dragons’ away day blues continued on Black Friday as they endured another Murrayfield mauling at the hands of Edinburgh.

The trial by scrummage that the Dragons had feared all week materialised and the complete absence of a platform meant their Guinness Pro12 struggles in attack continued.

After the hope provided by encouraging European Challenge Cup displays against Sale and Castres, they barely fired a shot and a last-gasp Nic Cudd ‘consolation’ was all they could muster.

And the Dragons weren’t helped by FOUR of their players having a Yellow Friday – a quartet of costly sin bins cemented a defeat that could well lead to a Blue Monday in terms of the language used in the team review.

The pointless trip north means that it will be a miracle if they finish any higher than their current ninth in the table with Edinburgh, who didn’t even need to be especially great, going off into the distance.

With just two home wins against the Italians to their name, another Challenge Cup run is needed to save the season.

That European jaunt was ended in pretty ugly fashion in Edinburgh and this was just as one-sided and demoralising as that 45-16 loss in April.

Edinburgh had the expected formidable scrum and power game but combined it with offloading and almost complete domination of possession. The Dragons just couldn’t get a foothold and were hindered by a poor kicking game.

The visitors couldn’t blame mental baggage for their troubles as their XV included just three players who had started that drubbing – wing Tom Prydie, fly-half Dorian Jones and flanker Nick Crosswell.

Edinburgh only had six from that rout themselves but they were all key figures – captain Mike Coman and the Scotland front row of Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and WP Nel aiming to provide plenty of possession for the half-backs Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Phil Burleigh.

Hidalgo-Clyne was the man who ran riot on that fateful April evening, pulling the strings and helping himself to a 25-point haul. This time the damage was done by those with cauliflower ears.

The Dragons needed a strong start and were mindful of Edinburgh’s strong set piece and power game.

Thus, they needed to defence with both tenacity and discipline, avoiding giving opportunities for the Scots to put the pressure on with their driving lineouts.

They did the first part in open play only for tighthead Shaun Knight to be penalised from a scrum after a choke tackle, leading to a three-point lead for the hosts through the cultured left peg of Hidalgo Clyne.

It was one-way traffic the Dragons in a quandary – Edinburgh were bossing possession but the visitors couldn’t afford to compete too hard at the breakdown and present a route to the corner.

But they rode out the early storm and their own period of pressure earned a leveller after Jones banged over a scrum penalty with 15 minutes gone.

However, they failed to exit well from the restart and gave away a penalty after desperately scrambling in defence.

It was kicked the corner and, with referee Marius Mitrea playing advantage and probably set to show yellow, Nel barged over for a score that Hidalgo-Clyne majestically converted for 10-3 with a quarter gone.

The Dragons were being completely starved of the ball and Edinburgh inched further clear with another three-pointer from their scrum-half approaching the half hour.

Yet a second sweet Jones penalty in the 35th minute ensured the Dragons were only 13-6 down despite being completely outplayed in almost every facet of the game.

That’s how it stood at half-time, but only after a lucky escape.

Another super Edinburgh attack forced more scrambling defence (with one excellent tackle by wing Ashton Hewitt) before Nel seemingly went over for his second.

Mr Mitrea seemed set to put his whistle to his lips but thought that he’d better check upstairs and it was ruled that the South African Scot had crawled before placing the ball.

South Wales Argus:

The Dragons needed to make the most of their fortune by starting swiftly in the second half and they certainly enjoyed more ball in their hosts’ territory.

But just seconds after a nice break by Jones, loosehead Boris Stankovich was sin-binned after another scrum penalty to stall the progress.

Cue more Edinburgh pressure and a yellow for his replacement Phil Price, which then prompted uncontested scrums even though sub tighthead Lloyd Fairbrother started at loosehead against Exeter last season.

It was frantic stuff as the 13-man Dragons tried to somehow stay in the game but the TMO was in action again when flanker John Hardie went over down the left.

This time the arm went up and Dorian Jones joined Price in the sin bin (Stankovich was just leaving) for an illegal tackle in the build-up.

Hidalgo-Clyne superbly added the extras and it was a long way back at 20-6 entering the final quarter given that the visitors had offered precious little in attack given their lack of a platform.

Another yellow followed – flanker Nic Cudd – and the Scots added their third down the right through wing Tom Brown and fourth through centre Matt Scott.

Cudd went over at the death but it was no consolation.

Edinburgh: G Tonks (B Kinghorn 29), T Brown, C Dean, M Scott, W Helu, P Burleigh, S Hidalgo-Clyne (S Kennedy 75), A Dickinson (R Sutherland 72), R Ford (N Cochrane 72), WP Nel (J Andress 72), A Toolis, F McKenzie, M Coman (captain), J Hardie (H Watson 63), C Du Preez.

Scorers: tries – WP Nel, J Hardie, T Brown, M Scott; conversions – S Hidalgo-Clyne (2), B Kinghorn; penalties – S Hidalgo-Clyne (2)

Dragons: C Meyer (J Tovey 59), T Prydie (R Wardle 70), A Hughes, A Warren, A Hewitt, D Jones, C Davies (S Pretorius 63), B Stankovich (P Price 65), E Dee (R Thomas 59), S Knight (L Fairbrother 63), M Screech (C Hill 75), R Landman (captain), N Crosswell (P Price 50-59), O Griffiths (R Thomas 55, Cudd 63), E Jackson.

Scorers: try – N Cudd; conversion – D Jones; penalties – D Jones (2) Yellow card: B Stankovich, P Price, D Jones, N Cudd

Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)

Attendance: 3,354