Edinburgh Rugby put an end to Treviso’s four-match winning streak on their own turf with a 22-11 win at the Stadio Monigo this afternoon.
The Italians were on a high having put 50 points past Dragons the previous weekend but it was the visitors who came out on top with 19-year-old man of the match winning stand-off, Harry Leonard, keeping his team in front with the boot before converting an Allan Jacobsen try from the touchline to seal the win.
The result sets the club up perfectly for next week’s trip to the Madejski Stadium where they face London Irish in round one of the Heineken Cup.
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Edinburgh Rugby head coach, Michael Bradley, said: “It was a good and important win for us today. The boys played well in terms of our shape, our control of the game from start to finish, and also that we put away the bogey of not winning away from home this season.
“We managed to direct our play into situations where we weren’t in a lot of pressure, we didn’t over play the game, we scrummaged well and we nullified their maul, which were all key elements in allowing us to win this game.
“It was a good win for a number of reasons. We’ve played good rugby this season and often without the rewards but you have to live with what’s on the board, today we played well and got the reward and that matters a lot.”
Speaking man on the match winning stand-off, Bradley added: “Harry played well today and backed up his performance against Leinster.
“It’s important at 10 that you control the game and he did that today. It was a good performance from him, he took his kicks and struck the ball well but his most telling contribution was his ability to pin Treviso back into the corners and keep the pressure on them.”
Leonard sent a pair of penalties through the sticks either side of a trademark Kris Burton drop goal before the hosts capitalised on a Nick de Luca yellow card to sneak in front when full-back Ludovico Nitoglia crossed the line for the unconverted score with two minutes to go to half-time.
But, with the interval looming, Leonard kept his cool and sent his teammates into the dressing room with a 9-8 lead with lovely 40 metre penalty.
HALF TIME: 9-8
Having missed an opportunity to extend the lead immediately after the break, Leonard added a fourth penalty on the 46th minute and, while it was soon cancelled out by Burton's first penalty of the day, Leonard added another three points with a quarter of an hour to go (15-11).
With the wind swirling and the rain pouring Edinburgh Rugby then struck the crucial killer blow when prop Allan Jacobsen crossed for a try before Leonard added the extras.
FULL TIME: 22-11
Benetton Treviso: 15 Ludovico Nitoglia; 14 Tommaso Benvenuti; 13 Ezio Galon, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Kris Burton; 9 Tobias Botes, 1 Michele Rizzo, 2 Franco Sbaraglini, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 5 Corniel van Zyl, 6 Francesco Minto, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 8 Marco Filippucci
Substitutes: Diego Vidal, Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet, Pedro di Santo, Benjamin Vermaak, Manoa Vosawai, Fabio Semenzato, Willem de Waal, Brendan Williams
Edinburgh Rugby: 15 Jim Thompson; 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick de Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser; 10 Harry Leonard, 9 Mike Blair; 1 Allan Jacobsen, 2 Ross Ford CAPTAIN, 3 Geoff Cross, 4 Esteban Lozada, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Dave Denton, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 Netani Talei
Substitutes: 16 Steven Lawrie, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Lewis Niven, 19 Steven Turnbull, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Chris Leck, 22 Greig Laidlaw, 23 Tom Brown
