Treviso squeeze past Zebre

Editor

Treviso staved off a determined fightback from Zebre before securing a 20-15 victory in their derby at Stadio Monigo in Treviso on Saturday.

Treviso staved off a determined fightback from Zebre before securing a 20-15 victory in their derby at Stadio Monigo in Treviso on Saturday.

The triumph over the PRO12's bottom-placed team moves Treviso into ninth spot in the standings level on points with Cardiff Blues with a game in hand.

Treviso led 14-8 at half-time, after Cornelius van Zyl and Manoa Vosawai crossed over for tries, which Mat Berquist converted.

They had to come from behind, however, after Marco Bartolami scored Zebre's first five-pointer in the 12th minute and Luciano Orquera also succeeded with a penalty shortly afterwards to give Zebre an 8-0 lead.

The home side's lead didn't last long as Dries van Schalkwyk crossed the whitewash shortly after the restart and Orquera's conversion put the visitors in front – at 15-14 – again.

Berquist regained the lead for Treviso with a penalty on the hour mark and sealed the win in the game's closing stages with another three-pointer from the kicking tee.

The scorers:

For Treviso:
Tries: Van Zyl, Vosawai
Cons: Berquist 2
Pens: Berquist 2

For Zebre:
Tries: Bortolami, Van Schalkwyk
Con: Orquera
Pen: Orquera
Yellow Cards: Geldenhuys, Ferrarini

Treviso: 15 Brendan Williams, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Christian Loamanu, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Mat Berquist, 9 Tobias Botes, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Manoa Vosawai, 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello (c), 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet, 19 Marco Fuser, 20 Valerio Bernabò, 21 Dean Budd, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 James Ambrosini.

Zebre: 15 Gugliemo Palazzani, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Dion Berryman 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Samuela Vunisa 7 Andries van Schalkwyk, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 5 Marco Bortolami (c) 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Dario Chistolini, 2 Davide Giazzon, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apici, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Luciano Leibson, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Filippo Cristiano, 21 Alberto Chillon, 22 Giulio Toniolatti, 23 Filippo Ferrarini.

Referee: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)