Italians do a job on the ill-disciplined Warriors yet again
BENETTON TREVISO 19 GLASGOW WARRIORS 18
Danny Wilson said that his Glasgow Warriors team have nobody to blame but themselves for blowing a winning position in this match by conceding three soft penalties in the final minute.
Warriors went from controlling possession inside Benetton’s 22 to watching helplessly as teenage standoff Leonardo Marin slotted a penalty in injury time to seal a dramatic victory.
It is the second time this season that the Italian youngster has broken Scottish hearts in this manner, after he kicked an injury-time dropgoal to defeat Edinburgh at
the same venue back in early October.
While that late collapse was the big talking point straight after the game, Wilson was quick to point out that the problem with discipline started well before the 79th minute.
“Due to terrible discipline, we spent the whole of the second half inside our own 22,” he lamented.
“The effort is there – it is excellent – there was lot of doggedness to hold on and not cave in on our own try-line.
“But the number of penalties we gave away to put ourselves in a position to lose that game is not good enough.
“With a minute-and-a-half to go, we manage to go from their try-line and give away a penalty for a contact area infringement, a penalty for a high tackle, and a penalty for throwing ourselves across the line-out.
“They are just ridiculous penalties which have handed them the game, if I am being honest with you.
“We have to learn our lessons because our discipline today has massively let us down, and from a position to win the game we end up losing the game, so we probably deserved what we got.”
Warriors got off to a poor start when they failed to pressurise George Horne’s clearance kick and allowed Benetton full-back Rhyno Smith to score the opening try after just 35 seconds.
But they bounced tight back with a try from No. 8 Jack Dempsey and then took the lead through a Ross Thompson penalty.
The match swung back towards the hosts when flanker Giovanni Pettinelli rumbled over for his team’s second try, before Warriors regained the lead just before half-time with a Rory Darge try which was converted by Ross Thompson.
When home captain Michele Lamaro was yellow-carded early in the second half for playing the ball on the ground and Thompson kicked the penalty, it looked like Warriors were poised to push-on for a valuable away win.
But despite having an extra man for the next 10 minutes, the visitors couldn’t find a way to control possession or territory.
Marin kicked three more points to bring it back to a two-point game with 17 minutes left to play.
But he then missed another penalty opportunity with 10 minutes to go and it looked like Warriors would hold on for victory.
It wasn’t to be, however, with that late collapse prompting Wilson to warn his players that there will be repercussions for their indiscipline.
“When we look back, we will look at the individuals who gave the penalties away,” he said.
“There are two types of penalty – there are dumb ones and ones when you take a gamble that doesn’t pay off.
“It is the dumb penalties we need to stop giving away – and the individuals at fault need to learn the lesson because we speak about discipline too often.”