Edinburgh Rugby return from Viadana with a losing bonus point after going down 25-19 to Aironi in the heat of Stadio Zaffanella today.
A well marshalled kicking display from the hosts kept Edinburgh, by and large, at bay in the first half, repeatedly earning the Italians territory from which they scored two well-worked set-piece scores, either side of a single Edinburgh try and penalty in the same period.
After the break Aironi got off to the perfect start when Nick Williams crossed for a converted try early in the second-half forcing the capital club to chase hard for the match which ended at a blistering pace.
Edinburgh battled back into the match with a try of their own but, with two second-half three-pointers a-piece, it was Aironi who were celebrating at the final whistle.
Head coach Michael Bradley, said: “Credit to Aironi, they were the better side today. Our defence was poor and we gave away two soft scores in the first-half and were let down by an early score in the second which left us chasing the game.
"We scored two good tries today when we played to our potential but will need to produce more of that if we are to challenge Munster at murrayfield next weekend."
The lineout was clearly a targeted strength of the Italians who repeatedy went for the near-side touchline, allowing eventual man of the match winning stand-off Naas Olivier to open the scoring thanks to scrum-half Tito Tebaldi, who created the space with the first phase lineout ball, allowing the South African to slice through, score and convert (7-0).
Edinburgh battled back with some hard yards earned by the forward trio of Sean Cox, Roddy Grant and David Denton, forcing the Italians to infringe at the breakdown.
Laidlaw stepped up and slotted the three points just two minutes before Kyle Traynor put the finish on some fantastic, all-hands, wing-to-wing rugby.
Laidlaw’s conversion was just wide giving the visitors a slender lead which remained in tact until two minutes from the interval when, from another potent attacking linout, Tebaldi sniped around from the back of a ruck for an unconverted score.
HALF TIME: 12-8
The second-half was full throttle as Edinburgh were forced to chase the game exceptionally hard following Williams early converted try (19-8).
But chase they did, with Harry Leonard scoring his first points in his first match for the club before a Tim Visser try narrowed the gap even further and putting Edinburgh right back in the game (19-16).
However, with the visitors chasing, Aironi played to their strengths, sending the ball back deep to Olivier who completed a full-house with a long-range drop-goal and another penalty with ten minutes to go.
A late Leonard penalty salvaged a losing bonus point for the visitors before the ball was sent into the stands to signal the end of the match.
FINAL SCORE: 25-19
AIRONI: Ruggero Trevisan; Sinoti Sinoti, Roberto Quartaroli, Gabriel Pizarro, Giovanbattista Venditti; Naas Olivier, Tito Tebaldi; Matias Aguero, Roberto Santamaria CAPTAIN, Fabio Staibano, Joshua Furno, George Biagi, Frans Viljoen, Nicola Cattina, Nick Williams
Substitutes: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Luca Redolfini, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Tyson Keats, 22 Alberto Benettin, 23 Riccardo Pavan.
EDINBURGH RUGBY: Tom Brown; Lee Jones, Jim Thompson, James King, Tim Visser; Gregor Hunter, Greig Laidlaw; Kyle Traynor, Steven Lawrie, Shaun Knight, Sean Cox, Steven Turnbull, David Denton, Roddy Grant, Stuart McInally
Substitutes: Alun Walker, Robin Hislop, Lewis Niven, Grant Gilchrist, Hamish Watson, Chris Leck, Harry Leonard, Matt Scott
Referee: Peter Allan (SRU)
