An hour of Hamish Watson in Llanelli showed the flanker is ready for a Scotland call should it come in Paris this weekend.
The British and Irish Lion has been waiting for his chance to make an international return since being concussed in the game against New Zealand, travelling with the squad to Twickenham and enjoying Scotland’s unbeaten start to the Six Nations.
After 80 minutes against the Sharks three weeks ago, Watson enjoyed an hour-long showing as captain in Llanelli, earning a couple of trademark turnovers and being the one shaft of light in Edinburgh’s dark display.
The home side were ready to capitalise on mistakes by the capital club, their back row of Vaea Fifita, Dan Davies and Sione Kalamafoni all showing up strongly in the Scarlets’ 42-14 victory.
“I feel good, I feel fit, tonight I was not at my best which is frustrating,” said Watson. “I feel physically good and fit but none of us were at our best.
“All of us could have been a lot better out there tonight, which is probably part of the reason we lost, none of us out there were taking the game by the scruff of the neck.”
Watson will hope it was enough to confirm a return to full fitness and maybe claim a place on the bench in Paris.
“We are back in with Scotland on Monday night, those boys have obviously done well in the last two weeks. I was there for the England game and the buzz after that was really good,” he said.
“Training with the boys has been great, we are back in on Monday and then we will see what happens the week after that.”
Coach Mike Blair feels Watson is ready if needed by Scotland, and explained why he was only given an hour of match practice in Llanelli.
“Hamish played 80 minutes three weeks ago in his first game back for three months,” he said. “His fitness is generally excellent. We felt we wanted to give Connor Boyle an opportunity as well, an up-and-coming seven, so a chance to show what he can do.”
The result meant Edinburgh slipped to 11th in the table, four points away from the top-eight places. It was also a sixth league defeat in seven games.
With Leinster up next, followed by Connacht, the Ospreys and Ulster, Edinburgh need to rediscover their best form sooner rather than later.
With Scotland in record-breaking form, and Glasgow earning a crucial win over Ulster, it would have been nice to add a further boost with a win in Wales.
However Edinburgh were never in contention as the Scarlets put all the uncertainty and scandal in Welsh rugby behind them to notch a comfortable win scoring six of the eight tries in the match.
Edinburgh bright spots were few and far between. Centre James Lang had a strong game after conceding a crucial interception try, Watson showed his class at a couple of breakdowns, and props Murray McCallum and Boan Venter notched a short range try each.
But on the whole it was a sloppy performance punctuated with little knock-ons, loose passes, unprotected breakdowns and weak gain-line tackling. The Scarlets remain unbeaten in this calendar year, but this was one of their easier victories.
“We thought we had a really good training week and came into the game full of confidence, but it was one of those days – we conceded early, tried to recover from it and then conceded again,” said Watson.
“To go 14 points down away from home is hard, we did it against the Sharks and when you are home it is a bit easier to come back into the game. Here we just could not come back, kept compounding our errors and at crucial times in the game we gave up easy field position.
“We just did not function today at all, physically we were well off it. Fair play to the Scarlets, they had a really good game today, but we could not go through the phases at the breakdown and lost a lot of breakdown ball.
“Away from home if you lose a lot at breakdown and physically, it is always going to be a tough day. Fair play to the Scarlets boys, they played really well.
“We have got Leinster in two weeks at home, which is obviously going to be a really tough game. Even with all their internationals away, Leinster could probably field four really good teams, so we need to learn from this and get better.
“Against Leinster and with a few tough games coming up, every game is a must-win now.”
