Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat admits he is still mystified by his side’s poor first-half performance in their 9-8 defeat at the hands of Newport Gwent Dragons.

Three penalties from the boot of James Arlidge proved enough to keep Edinburgh returning to the summit of the Magners League.

And despite rallying after the interval, Moffat maintains the first 40 minutes were unacceptable.

“It was a poor performance by us,” said Moffat. “We didn't perform in the first half at all.

“They won the kicking game which gave them territory, and we gave away three bad penalties which allowed them to get ahead. We played better in the second half but the first half killed us.

“We made a lot of basic mistakes, there were too many forced balls in contact and too many went down.

“ You have to wonder why we played so badly in the first half, if we had played in the opening period the way we did after the break, we would have won.”