Benetton Treviso 11 - 22 Edinburgh: Harry Leonard stars as Edinburgh shine

EDINBURGH rounded off an excellent weekend for Scottish rugby in Italy as they saw off high-flying Treviso to claim a vital league win.

Nineteen-year old stand-off Harry Leonard claimed the plaudits as he landed five penalties and a conversion to steer his side home, while Ross Rennie scored a try on his first league outing since the World Cup to put the game beyond doubt.

But this was far from a two-man show. Edinburgh were forced to dig deep as the Benetton-backed Italians went in search of their fifth straight victory and, from full-back Jim Thompson to tighthead prop Geoff Cross, they responded with a gutsy display which delighted coach Michael Bradley.

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“It was a very solid performance by us,” said the former Irish international. “Obviously Treviso had won their last four matches here, whilst we had lost five of our last seven.

“Perhaps we just needed it more than they did on this occasion. The mindset is always very important in rugby and we were well up for it today.

“Our defence was under a lot of pressure, but we held out. When we had the ball, we played with a lot of balance. The performance of our pack was especially good, and hopefully now we can kick on from here.”

Things had looked ominous for Edinburgh early on as Treviso asked serious question of their scrum (destroyed on their first put-in), and of their defence.

But the normally-reliable figure of Kris Burton seemed to have left his kicking boots behind. The South African marksman fell just short with a straightforward penalty and then pushed a drop goal wide.

Edinburgh grew in confidence thereafter, and began to frustrate Treviso by keeping them penned back inside their own half.

And, whenever the hosts fell foul of Scottish referee Andrew Macpherson, Leonard was on hand to make them pay. He kicked two penalties in succession and Edinburgh looked to be in a good place as a half time approached, but they suffered a partial meltdown after Nick de Luca was sent to the sin bin for persistently infringeing the rules.

With Treviso smelling blood, Tim Visser did superbly to deny Tommaso Benvenuti a try in the corner but the rest of his team-mates seemed to switch off from the resulting lineout and Ludovico Nitoglia crossed the line for the game’s opening try.

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There was still time for more action before the half-time whistle.

Lorenzo Cittadini found himself in the bin after slowing up an Edinburgh attack and, with the last kick of the half, Leonard nailed a difficult penalty attempt from wide on the angle to preserve his side’s lead going into the break.

He landed another five minutes into the second half and, although Edinburgh’s back play was largely blunt and unimaginative, they were looking far more assured than their hosts, who were looking increasingly panicky.

Burton and Leonard traded penalties midway through the half before the defining moment of the game arrived ten minutes from time.

The Edinburgh pack, by now well on top, mauled and brawled their way upfield and over the line in a mass demonstration of force until, finally, the Treviso rearguard crumbled and the ball was grounded. Allan Jacobsen seemed to claim the try, but it was officially awarded to Rennie, who was the last man up after all the bodies had been cleared.

Nobody in the Edinburgh ranks seemed certain as to who had made the final contribution. No-one seemed to care.

Leonard split the posts with the conversion to put daylight between the sides, and even with ten minutes remaining, Edinburgh looked home and dry.

Treviso, to be fair, came on strong during the final stages, but pleasingly for Bradley and his coaching staff, they could not find a way through the defensive wall.

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Captain Ross Ford was particularly impressive during this period. After a turbulent start, the Edinburgh tight five finished the game very strongly.

Mike Blair, also, shone throughout on his first game back since his return from New Zealand.

Suddenly next weekend’s trip to face London Irish in the Heineken Cup doesn’t seem quite as ominous as it did.

Scorers: Benetton Treviso: Try: Nitoglia. Pen: Burton. Drop goal: Burton. Edinburgh: Try: Rennie. Con: Leonard. Pens: Leonard 5.

Benetton Treviso: Nitoglia; Benvenuti, Galon, Sgarbi, McLean; Burton, Botes; Rizzo, Sbaraglini, Cittadini, Pavanello, van Zyl, Minto, Zanni, Filippucci. Subs used: Semenzato, Di Santo, Galon, Williams, Fernandez-Rouyet, Vidal, Vermaak, Vosawai.

Edinburgh: Thompson; Jones, De Luca, Scott, Visser; Leonard, Blair; Jacobsen, Ford, Cross, Lozada, Gilchrist, Denton, Rennie, N Talei. Subs: Niven, Turnbull, McInally.

Referee: Andrew Macpherson (SRU). Attendance: 3,000.

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