Edinburgh suffer first URC defeat after 'unusual and erratic' display as red card goes unpunished

Edinburgh crashed to their first defeat of the URC season after being dominated by a previously winless Benetton in Treviso.

Most of the damage was done in a first half where Edinburgh conceded 18 points without reply as they failed to take advantage of a 20-minute red card for Benetton's Matias Medrano.

The fired up Italians were imperious in defence and clinical in attack as they closed out a thoroughly deserved 31-12 victory in front of a capacity crowd at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo.

Head coach Sean Everitt felt Edinburgh were "erratic" in their 31-12 defeat by Benetton in Treviso. | PA

Edinburgh bore more resemblance to the team that finished 12th in the URC last season than the one that started the weekend top of the table after four successive victories. They have now dropped to fourth ahead of the international break.

"It's a bit of an unusual erratic performance from us," head coach Sean Everitt said afterwards. “We didn't perform well today so we're disappointed with that, but we know it's a difficult place to come and play.

"Benetton played incredibly well. We knew they were a dangerous team after having lost four times in the URC. We weren't at our best, so it's difficult to win away from home."

Reflecting on the poor opening half, Everitt added: "We got a couple of things wrong defensively and they got away from us on the scoreboard. We regrouped at half-time and I thought our second half was more positive, but we gave away the intercept try which took the game away from us."

Benetton set the tone straight from kick-off, working a try inside 90 seconds as Piero Griti finished in the corner with the Edinburgh defence scrambling.

Indiscipline threatened to derail the hosts' dominant start when Medrano was sin-binned for a terrible tackle into the back of Grant Gilchrist's knees after he had offloaded the ball. The TMO upgraded the yellow card to a 20-minute red due to a high level of danger giving Edinburgh a chance to seize the initiative which they failed to take.

The Benetton 22 became a no-go zone as their 14 players built a green and white wall that Edinburgh did not have the tools to break through with zero try-scoring chances created. And that strong defence proved the platform for Benetton to break upfield and bag a second try despite the man disadvantage through Ignacio Mendy.

Edinburgh then found themselves a man down shortly after parity was restored as Calum Hunter-Hill was yellow carded for a high tackle and Bautista Bernasconi put Benetton further ahead with a close range pick and drive.

Jacob Umaga missed all three conversions before converting a penalty so Edinburgh were left chasing an 18-0 half-time deficit. Not insurmountable as Glasgow Warriors proved at the same venue last weekend, fighting back from 17-0 down to win.

Edinburgh needed a momentum shift at the start of the second half but an Umaga penalty and a Onisi Ratave try, who ran through unopposed after an interception in his own half, extended Benetton's lead to 28-0.

It took 55 minutes for Edinburgh to get a sniff of the Benetton try line as Harri Morris drove over with Grayson converting. Harry Paterson came off the bench to get Edinburgh's second try in the 71st minute to give them a glimmer of hope of a losing bonus point.

But they could not build up a head of steam in the closing stages and a Jean Smith penalty with five minutes remaining put paid to any Edinburgh hopes of salvaging something.