Benetton ended the United Rugby Championship regular season in style with a comfortable 31-6 victory over Edinburgh, ending the Scottish side’s play-off hopes.
Trying from Ignacio Mendy, Onisi Latabe, Tomás Albornoz and Alessandro Izekor (2), plus three conversions from Rhino Smith, sealed an impressive victory.
Edinburgh could only convert two penalties from Ben Healy, ending their URC play-off hopes altogether and dropping out of the top eight in the table.
Scorers click here
Benetton overcame an early yellow card for Izekor to take the lead after a fast and furious opening period.
Albornoz passed to Nacho Breks, who made a strong run and then produced a superb offload pass for Mendy to run in but Smith missed the conversion.
Healy, the tournament’s top scorer, then converted two penalties to give Edinburgh a one-goal lead, but Benetton retook the lead just before half-time.
Latabe took advantage of a Matt Curry spill and ran just wide of the goalpost, before Smith made sure to smash the extra point home to give the home team a 12-6 lead at the end of the first half.
Benetton’s Thomas Gallo had a try ruled out for a double movement, but two quick tries, converted by Smith, extended Benetton’s lead just after the 60th minute.
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Albornoz found a gap in the Edinburgh defence and fired under the post before Izekor exploited some sloppy play from the visitors to secure Benetton the bonus point.
Izekor scored a second four minutes later but then Smith missed his tee shot and Benetton suffered a fifth consecutive defeat to the visiting Edinburgh in Treviso.
team
Benetton: 15 Rhino Smith, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Ignacio Breks, 11 Onisi Latabe, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 9 Andy Uren, 8 Tore Harafihi, 7 Michele Ramallo (c), 6 Alessandro Izekol, 5 Eli Sniman, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Thomas Gallo
replacement: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirko Spagnolo, 18 Giosué Girocchi, 19 Edoardo Iacizzi, 20 Lorenzo Cannone, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Jacob Umaga, 23 Marco Zanon
Edinburgh: 15 James Lang, 14 Jake Henry, 13 Matt Curry, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Ben Healy, 9 Ali Price, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Luke Crosby, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist (c), 4 Sam Skinner, 3 WP Nel, 2 Euan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schaumann
replacement: 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Ben Vellacott, 22 Cammie Scott, 23 Mark Bennett
Judge: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
Assistant Referee: Filippo Russo (FIR), Alex Frasson (FIR)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (WRU)
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