Swansea opened up a six-point gap at the top of the Welsh-Scottish League with a 24-16 win over Edinburgh Reivers at Murrayfield on Friday night.

The All Whites, who were missing Scott Gibbs, Arwel Thomas and Hywel Jenkins, maximised their scoring opportunities in a purple patch just after the break and defended their lead defiantly in the last quarter.

In so doing, Swansea created a buffer between themselves and second-placed rivals Cardiff with a win which ended the Reivers' home dominance over Welsh sides this season.

While the All-Whites are favourites to claim the title, Reivers languish near the foot of the table with several tough trips to the Principality still to come.

Swansea were given a great start when Geraint Lewis crossed early on and Cerith Rees added a penalty shortly afterwards.

After 12 minutes, some slick handling from the Reivers backs inside their own 22 sent David Officer away down the left and although his chip beat full-back Kevin Morgan, the bounce saw the ball roll into touch.

Two minutes later Duncan Hodge thumped a relatively straight forward penalty opportunity wide.

However, after some powerful forward play from the Reivers, Hodge made amends to reduce the deficit to 8-3.

Rees quickly reopened the eight-point gap by stroking home his second penalty of the night.

Hodge hit back with his second penalty - awarded for yet another Swansea infringement in a ruck - in the 26th minute to make it 11-6.

Matthew Robinson eluded two Reivers tackles, but Chris Paterson held him down and with the ball not released in the ruck Swansea were penalised and the Scots were allowed to clear.

Two minutes before the break, Reivers scored a wonderful try full of crisp passing and sound handling.

Number eight Simon Taylor's superb lay-off in the tackle created the space and eventually the ball was fed to Scotland full-back Paterson who darted over. Hodge converted to put the Reivers ahead at 13-11 at the interval.

Two minutes into the second half Rees fired Swansea ahead again with a penalty in front of the posts but Hodge hit back immediately to put the Reivers 16-14 in front.

Hodge missed a simple penalty opportunity to increase Reivers' lead and, although his tactical kicking from hand was pinning Swansea in their 22, he was replaced by Gordon Ross.

After a scrappy passage of play following a host of substitutions, Ross' first action was to narrowly fail with an extremely difficulty penalty attempt in the 62nd minute.

Four minutes later, a combination of excellent Swansea handling in the backs and weak Edinburgh tackling saw wing Shaun Payne feed full-back Morgan who dived over.

Rees added the conversion from the touchline to hand Swansea a 21-16 lead.

Ross failed with a much more simple penalty chance after 72 minutes as time ran out for the home side. Rees tied up the victory for the visitors with a last-minute penalty to leave the Reivers to reflect on their dominance in possession but lack of cutting edge.