Edinburgh beat the Scarlets 31-21, while there were also Pro14 wins for the Glasgow Warriors, Leinster, Munster, Cardiff Blues, Ulster and Connacht.
In a clash between Conference B’s third and fourth-placed sides at Murrayfield, Edinburgh weathered a resilient Scarlets performance to bring themselves within three points of their opponents.
Braces from No 8 Bill Mata and wing Tom Brown, to go along with a try from Pierre Schoeman, capped a fine display from the hosts but the Scarlets did not let them have their own way.
Despite falling to a 17-7 deficit midway through the first half, the Scarlets fought back bravely, narrowing the difference to just three points with tries from Morgan Williams and Paul Asquith. Edinburgh suffered a further blow early in the second half when Simon Thomas was sent to the sin bin and the Scarlets capitalised fully as Johnny McNicholl went over to put them into the lead for the first time in the match.
However, the hosts regained the lead when Schoeman drove over after a number of phases to ground the Scarlets defence down. Edinburgh then sought to see the game out and they were helped in this regard by Scarlets prop Simon Gardner getting a late yellow card. Mata then crossed for his second to seal the win.
Meanwhile, the Glasgow Warriors further entrenched their place at the top of Conference A by beating the Ospreys 29-20.
The Warriors suffered early blows by conceding a try to Ospreys flank Olly Cracknell before losing fullback Ruaridh Jackson to injury.
However, Jackson’s replacement Niko Matawalu put in a fiery performance from the bench, scoring a hat-trick to help his team past the home side.
In other results, Leinster put in a powerful first-half performance, but withstood a late Kings fightback to win 38-31 and Munster stayed second in Conference A with a narrow 30-26 victory over the Cheetahs.
The Cardiff Blues gave retiring veteran prop Gethin Jenkins a perfect sendoff by thrashing Zebre 37-0, a try from hooker Rob Herring gave Ulster a crucial 15-10 win over Treviso in Italy, while Connacht eased to a 33-12 victory against the Dragons.
Round 8 results:
Edinburgh 31 Scarlets 21
Ospreys 20 Glasgow Warriors 29
Treviso 10 Ulster 15
Connacht 33 Dragons 12
Cardiff Blues 37 Zebre 0
Kings 31 Leinster 38
Cheetahs 26 Munster 30
Photo: @EdinburghRugby/Twitter
