Edinburgh consolidated fifth place in the United Rugby Championship with a hard-fought victory at Cardiff.

Cardiff responded with a try from Thomas Young and a penalty try.

Defeat ended a three-match winning sequence for Dai Young’s men as Cardiff finish the first URC block as the top Welsh region in sixth place.

Wales half-backs Lloyd Williams and Jarrod Evans returned with Cardiff having Dillon Lewis, Taulupe Faletau, Tomos Williams, Rhys Priestland and Josh Adams involved in Wales’ international squad.

Cardiff also have Kristian Dacey, Seb Davies, Matthew Screech, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Josh Navidi, Uilisi Halaholo, Rey Lee-Lo, Owen Lane, Liam Williams, Jacob Beetham and Matthew Morgan on the injury list.

Edinburgh, who had 14 players involved in the Scotland squad, had initially made three changes from the team that claimed a bonus-point win over Zebre.

Lock Pierce Phillips, flanker Muncaster and fly-half Charlie Savala started for the Scottish side.

There was also a late change with full-back Henry Immelman dropping out, Jack Blain coming on the wing and Argentina star Boffelli slotting in at 15.

Boffelli opened the scoring with a penalty before flanker Muncaster dived over following good work from Dean.

Cardiff responded with a patient build-up and in-form Wales prop Rhys Carre, overlooked by Wayne Pivac this autumn, looked to have scored by burrowing over under the posts.

But the try was eventually disallowed after Italian referee Gianluca Gnecchi was alerted by the television match official Stefano Roscini to Carre’s double movement in the act of scoring.

Cardiff were awarded an opening try thanks to a smart finish from Thomas Young after strong build-up work from Ben Thomas.

Dean was again the architect of Edinburgh’s second try as he fed captain Crosbie before Evans slotted over a penalty for Cardiff.

Young was denied a second score after he was held up over the Edinburgh line before the hosts forced Edinburgh to concede a penalty try from another rolling maul, with fly-half Charlie Savala shown a yellow card.

It was the first time Cardiff had led as they held a 17-15 half-time advantage.

Cardiff wing Jason Harries crossed in the second half, but that was also ruled out.

Young was penalised for a high tackle on Dean and Boffelli restored the advantage for Edinburgh.

Replacement hooker Patrick Harrison was driven over and Boffelli converted as Edinburgh moved eight points clear.

Edinburgh replacement Connor Boyle was only on the field for a few minutes before he was forced off with a head injury after attempting to tackle Thomas, though he appeared to recover well in the dressing-room after the game.

Replacement prop Corey Domachowski scythed through the Edinburgh defence, but opted to chip and his progress was robustly halted by Boffelli with no sanction issued.

Edinburgh held on for victory as Cardiff managed no points in the second half.

Cardiff have a friendly against Bristol on 11 November before travelling to face South African sides Sharks and Bulls in the URC, while Edinburgh are in Treviso on 26 November.

Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young told BBC Sport Wales:

“We were slow out of the blocks and gave Edinburgh a head start, but we got ourselves back into the game and I was really pleased with our forward effort, our driving maul caused them problems and our scrum was on top.

“But in the second half we couldn’t get ourselves into the game. The contact area penalties were fair enough and we need to be better, but some of the set-piece penalties, I was scratching my head because I thought we were dominant.

“It’s a game where we should have come away with something, but we’ve had a bit of luck in the last three games and we didn’t have any tonight.

“We may have one or two players back for South Africa. Ellis Jenkins will be up for selection after a tidy-up of his knee, Rey Lee-Lo may be back but Josh Navidi, Owen Lane and Willis Halaholo won’t be for that block.”

Edinburgh assistant coach Gareth Baber, formerly with Cardiff, told BBC Sport Wales:

“It was a competitive game, scrappy at times, we knew it was going to be a physical battle but we matched up well and we started to get a bit of ascendancy with penalties at scrum time and our driving line-outs.

“Overall I thought we deserved the win and we held to our strategy to win it. To see the smiles and the enjoyment the players and coaching staff are having was pretty special.

“We had a tough time in South Africa but we got a couple of points out of it, we’ve learned with the top-end decision-making and it puts us in a reasonable position (in the table) with the break coming up.”

Cardiff Rugby: Ben Thomas; Jason Harries, Mason Grady, Max Llewellyn, Theo Cabango; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams; Rhys Carré, Kirby Myhill, Dmitri Arhip, Josh Turnbull (capt), Rory Thornton, James Botham, Thomas Young, James Ratti.

Replacements: Liam Belcher, Corey Domachowski, Will Davies-King, Teddy Williams, Gwilym Bradley, Ellis Bevan, Aled Summerhill, Cameron Winnett.

Edinburgh: Emiliano Boffelli; Jack Blain, Matt Currie, Chris Dean, Wes Goosen; Charlie Savala, Charlie Shiel; Boan Venter, Adam McBurney, Luan de Bruin Pierce Phillips, Jamie Hodgson, Ben Muncaster, Luke Crosbie (capt), Viliame Mata.

Replacements: Patrick Harrison, Nick Auterac, Angus Williams, Marshall Sykes, Connor Boyle, Henry Pyrgos, Jaco van der Walt, Cameron Scott.

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

Assistant referees: Mike English & Lewis Harrison (WRU)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)