Edinburgh fail to make numbers count as they fall to yet another Italian Job
A golden opportunity to break a five-match losing streak at the Stadio Monigo inj Treviso slipped through Edinburgh’s fingers yesterday – and they have only themselves to blame.
Despite their hosts losing winger Matteo Minozzi to a red card in the 10th minute, and then being reduced to 13 men twice during the second half when second-row Feberico Ruzza and full-back Rhyno Smith picked up yellow cards, the visitors failed to impose themselves in this contest.
Edinburgh were bullied at the breakdown and head coach Mike Blair admitted afterwards that his team had only themselves to blame for failing to make it three wins on the bounce during the last month.
“It’s definitely disappointing – we knew this was going to be a really tough game with the team that they picked,” he said.
“Benetton were excellent and managed the game really well after they had that player sent off
“They were really smart, and we’ve seen it before with red cards and how it can really galvanise a team. It brings emotion into it and gives them that backs-to-the-wall type of mentality.
“But we’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to see that as an opportunity. I think we waited and thought that the red card was going to be the thing that won us game – but that wasn’t the case.
“It’s your physicality,
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.