'Two points is like being happy you have candles when the power is out'

If Sergio Leone had watched Scarlets v Edinburgh he may have called his legendary spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad and the Piardi.

Let's start with the bad. Edinburgh's discipline was as poor as I've seen it for quite some time. Four penalties conceded in the first 13 minutes gave Scarlets a 6-0 leg up without them barely having stretched off.

In that same period Sam Lousi charged down an Ali Price box kick. I was aware that was something he was known for. He did it about four times to Charlie Shiel the last time we visited Parc y Scarlets. Price wasn't looking and neither was he paying attention later in the game when he missed the ball shooting out from a scrum just inside our 22.

Needless costly penalties were conceded by senior players including Sam Skinner, Glen Young, Hamish Watson, and an obstruction on our own try line by Tom Dodd led straight to Scarlets' last try.

The Piardi part has two aspects. The first is we should be able to adapt to his foibles. I'll just highlight a couple of examples of those from the closing stages that probably cost us as a team.

On 63 minutes Edinburgh were attacking close to Scarlets' line and he called, "Advantage - don't play the nine", as a Scarlets player grabbed a hold of Price over the top of the ruck. The attack was disrupted and ended with a Scarlets lineout.

With seven minutes left he awarded Edinburgh a scrum penalty around the halfway line. Scarlets loosehead Alec Hepburn started jumping up and down, gesticulating and shouting at Piardi. Sanction? Nothing.

The good? Two bonus points is definitely a positive and it was encouraging in the wider sense that despite everything that was going against us that we kept fighting.

There was another strong showing from Lewis Wells before he was injured and the likes of Rob Carmichael, Tom Currie and especially Harri Morris all showed up well.

Ultimately if you mention a 10-hour bus trip and say it's not an excuse then, I'm sorry, that's exactly what it is. The two points may turn out to be valuable but it's like being happy you've got candles when the power is out.

After 10 games we have 24 points. At this stage last year we were on 34. Improvement?

Sandy Smith can be found at The Burgh Watch