Count as they fall to yet another Italian Job

your relentlessness in attack, persistence in defence, your smarts – that’s what wins you games.

“We always speak about how we want to be perceived as ruthless and clinical in attack, as well as physical in defence, but we didn’t get that today.

“This was a tough game to come back to after the international break, but we were just off it in a couple of areas and that’s something we need to fix moving forward to next week.”

The game started brightly for the Scottish side with a Charlie Savala penalty edging them into a second minute lead. But they switched off after Minozzi was given his marching orders for allowing his left boot to connect with Wes Goosen’s face as he collected a high ball, and home stand-off Tomas Albornoz sent a long pass out to the right wing for Marcus Watson to score the game’s first try.

Benetton continued to dominate and Goosen was yellow-carded for an offside after referee Craig Evans lost patience with the number of the penalties the home team were conceding.

The hosts then scored again through a well-worked try finished off by Sebastian Negri, making it 10-3 at the break.

The visitors started the second 40 minutes in fine fashion with Savala delaying his pass perfectly to send Henry Immelman in for a try on the right, and Savala’s conversion squared the contest.

However, a sloppy knock-on from Immelman a few minutes later handed the initiative back to the home team, and Lorenzo Cannone took advantage by scrambling over for Benetton’s third try.

With Ruzza in the sin-bin, Edinburgh managed to tie the match again when Nick Haining broke through and then sent Immelman over for his second, which Savala then again converted.

But once again the visitors failed to build on the promising position they had battled their way into, and an excellent chip kick from Dewaldt Duvenage sent Smith in for the try which secured the win and the bonus-point for the home side.

Smith was sent to the sin-bin for a swinging arm at a ruck in the final few minutes, but Benetton held on for a welldeserved win.