That's the second best result of the 8 teams to play in Treviso so far in this season's Pro 12. Only* Leinster did better. Granted Treviso are weakened at present but you can only beat what's in front of you etc.

*Scarlet's winning margin was one point greater (22-6) than ours but they failed to pick up the TBP, so our result betters theirs.

Solid 5 pointer. Bit disappointing the way they were able to pull back a couple of tries late on but we made so many changes around the one time in the final 20 it was always a possibility. Move on to hopefully another 5 pointer next Friday and keep the pressure on Cardiff and Glasgow above us. Table is starting to look a lot better at this stage.

dobby wrote: Current score 34-5, bonus point achieved. Tries blade, Bealham, ronaldson, o'halloran

Shame we didn't either get a few more scores when the bench was emptied at 67 mins(?) or keep them out for the remainder, but leaking 2 tries doesn't do the subs case for starting next week much good. Feel bad that we can't bring a few more rookies on in these games but Treviso last year was case in point as to how we don't play well when key players are missing (story of this season?)
Glad to see us getting 3 wins in a row. Roll on Friday night.

Do we know if there are highlights going to be shown on TG4 or elsewhere ?

Bonus point win for the first time ....How bad ! Hopefully not too many injuries. A big thanks to all involved in keeping us up to date. Well done !!

Current score 34-5, bonus point achieved. Tries blade, Bealham, ronaldson, o'halloran

0-20 nil now, wish I could see how Bundee is acclimating, Hope that this is used to get us into our groove again, need to get into our rhythm and game more so when the tougher games come along we can stick with it

sea_point wrote: Dani needs a positive game, needs to be secure defensively and to get himself involved in attack, in fact both wingers need to do more this week than we've seen recently..

Couple of lads clearly being rested for bigger fish ahead, but good to see Delahunt getting some game time. A very good prospect...

Cooney covering Nine/Ten again...should be starting though...

Feck we are desperate for front row cover if Andress is getting named even on bench.
As we saw against Zebre (in CC) when he came on after 46mins for Finlay (and pretty much every appearance he's made so far), he doesn't have the legs anymore and was absolutely destroyed in the scrum...

Dani has as good a backline around him that he is likely to see this season. I hope he does well. I think he very much needs to. I think he knows this also which doesn't make it easy

We need a good run of form to have any hope of doing well in that ECC play off. This season's form so far won't do. A good win tomorrow and the confidence will come again. Passes will stick, tackles will hit their mark.

Looking at that unavailable list for Treviso and the strength of the team we've named anything other than a hockeying will be a disappointing result honestly.

Seeing so much talk of amateur players being lent to Treviso, you have to say 5 points is the target here, regardless of whether or not its a pretty win.

Benetton Rugby will face Connacht Rugby on Sunday February 26 at 13.30 in the 16° round of Guinness Pro12.

Because of many absences due to injuries and commitments of the Italian national team that will face England on sunday afternoon, the squad has been integrated with the following athletes who will sit on the bench: Mark Irving, Luca Nostran, Enrico Francescato from Petrarca Rugby and Filippo Ferrarini from the Rugby Mogliano.

The green and whites involved with the national team: Tommaso Allan, Tommaso Benvenuti, Giorgio Bronzini, Marco Fuser, Ornel Gega, Edoardo Gori, Luke McLean e Abraham Steyn.

Full back will be Luca Sperandio, on the wings Michael Tagicakibau and Andrea Buondonno. Tommaso Iannone and the captain Alberto Sgarbi will be respectively right and left centre.

The half backs are Tito Tebaldi at scrum half and Ian McKinley at fly-half.

The front row will consist of Federico Zani, Luca Bigi and Tiziano Pasquali.

Locks will be Teofilo Paulo and Dean Budd. Finally, the back row sees Marco Lazzaroni, Francesco Minto and Robert Barbieri completing the XV chosen by Coach Crowley.

Benetton Treviso:

15 Luca Sperandio
14 Michael Tagicakibau
13 Tommaso Iannone
12 Alberto Sgarbi (C)
11 Andrea Buondonno
10 Ian McKinley
9 Tito Tebaldi
8 Robert Barbieri
7 Francesco Minto
6 Marco Lazzaroni
5 Dean Budd
4 Teofilo Paulo
3 Tiziano Pasquali
2 Luca Bigi
1 Federico Zani

Replacements:

16 Roberto Santamaria
17 Matteo Zanusso
18 Mark Irving
19 Luca Nostran
20 Filippo Ferrarini
21 Enrico Francescato
22 Andrea Pratichetti
23 David Odiete

Coach: Kieran Crowley

Unavailable: Tommaso Allan, Marty Banks, Marco Barbini, Tommaso Benvenuti, Giorgio Bronzini, Alberto De Marchi, Angelo Esposito, Simone Ferrari, Filippo Filippetto, Marco Fuser, Ornel Gega, Filippo Gerosa, Edoardo Gori, Jayden Hayward, Luke McLean, Jean-Francois Montauriol, Luca Morisi, Nicola Quaglio, Abraham Steyn, Cherif Traore, Guglielmo Zanini, Alessandro Zanni.

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 57th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies (WRU), Guiseppe Vivarini (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Marco Cordelli (FIR)

Benetton Rugby thanks the clubs Mogliano Rugby, Petrarca Rugby for their cooperation.

Read more at www.pro12rugby.com/2017/02/24/benetton-r...#YtyerHbBG4yKAmzm.99

salmson wrote:

sea_point wrote: Cooney covering Nine/Ten again...should be starting though...

Yeah, I'd rather the composed systemic Cooney starting and Blade as impact sub too. Didn't work awful well with Blade starting and Cooney subbing last w/e

Disagree, I think it's mainly Ronaldson who covers 10 if Carty has to go off...
And I'm happy Blade starts, Cooney isn't there on the long-term

clanman wrote: no TV\online coverage is unfortunate, is there anyone going that could provide a periscope or facebook video feed?

Even a few tweets would be great. the official Connacht account uses the hashtag #CRlive

Mark Mostyn wrote:
Is JP Cooney focusing more on loosehead now? What does it say about academy/fringe tightheads that Andress is ahead of them?

Carey and O'Donnell are injured an Meunargia has gone to Doncaster. Robertson-McCoy has hardly played, so there's not an awful lot at prop all round. JP has always played both sides for us. I think he has 2 start each side this season.

That's a fine team.

Excited to hear how Delahunt goes as i think he has a serious amount of ability. Tom deserves a break and has looked a bit knackered at times.

Speaking of knackered, you could say the same for Dennis and Finlay too. I do wonder about our academy props also at times, but think many of them have had their injury troubles over the past season or two. Still, it would be nice to see one or two come through next year. Conan seemed a very bright prospect until his injury. Not sure which position Saba regularly plays but seeing him go on loan and we have Andress on the bench for example, perhaps he is more a loosehead, otherwise you would really prefer to see the man get the priority. But respect to Andress for helping us out as he was retired!

And to think that Kelleher, Boshoff and maybe even a Daragh Leader still to come back into that back line/ bench!!!! And Marmian.