Treviso made it four RaboDirect PRO12 wins in a row on Saturday with a comprehensive 50-24 victory over the Dragons at Stadio Monigo.
On his 200th appearance for Treviso, Brendan Williams capped a special day by scoring two of his side's seven tries in the win.
Boosted by the return of a number of players from World Cup duty, the Italians began the match at a rate of knots and it was just five minutes before one of their international stars, flanker Alessandro Zanni, crossed the whitewash to give them an early lead.
After a morale-boosting win over Wasps in the LV= Cup last week, many would have expected the Dragons to hit back and make a fight of it but they were completely unable to get a foothold in the game.
Not even ten minutes were on the clock when Williams went over for his first try and he added a second soon after to give Treviso a commanding 21-0 lead after the first quarter of the match.
Although the Dragons did get on the scoreboard before half-time with a Jason Tovey penalty and reduced the deficit further thanks to a good try from South African winger Tonderai Chavhanga early in the second half, the Italian side were not to be denied.
Full-back Ludovico Nitoglia replied almost instantly with the bonus point try and then, after a host of substitutions from both sides, the floodgates opened.
Three of the replacements, scrum-half Tobias Botes and Italian international back-row forwards Paul Derbyshire and Robert Barbieri, scored in the space of just five minutes as Treviso reached 50 points.
Although the Dragons ran in two late consolation tries through Chavhanga again and Steffan Jones, it did not take any of the gloss off what was a hugely impressive performance and a special day for Brendan Williams and Treviso.
The scorers:
For Treviso:
Tries: Zanni, Williams 2, Nitoglia, Botes, Barbieri, Derbyshire
Con: Burton 5, Botes
Pen: Burton
For Dragons:
Tries: Chavhanga 2, Jones
Con: Tovey 3
Pen: Tovey
Treviso: 15 Ludovico Nitoglia, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Ezio Galon, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Brendan Williams, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Marco Filippucci, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello (capt), 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Enrico Ceccato, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Pedro Di Santo, 19 Valerio Bernaḅ, 20 Robert Barbieri, 21 Paul Derbyshire, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Luke McLean.
Dragons: 15 Martyn Thomas, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Adam Hughes, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Mike Poole, 10 Steffan Jones, 9 Joe Bedford, 8 Lewis Evans, 7 Gavin Thomas, 6 Andrew Coombs, 5 Scott Morgan, 4 Adam Jones, 3 Nathan Buck, 2 Tom Willis (capt), 1 Phil Price.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Nathan Williams, 18 Dan Way, 19 Jevon Groves, 20 Tom Brown, 21 James Leadbeater, 22 Lewis Robling, 23 Jason Tovey.
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Comments
j615 says...
4 wins in a row for Treviso now. Amazing to see an Italian side play such free flowing rugby and get 50 points. The team is more or less Italian born these days. Lets hope they can finish top half of Celtic League and have a good Heineken Cup. Burton HAS to start at 10 come the Six Nations.
Posted 23:48 31st October 2011
Lucasrg says...
Treviso is looking very good now that they got 9 players back form New Zealand, well drilled and eager to play after a disastrous game versus Ireland.
Well done to the coaching stuff as they let 3 very good players on the bench (Derbyshire,McLean,Barbieri) to rest a bit.
If Burton keeps this form, he got to be selected as Italys's n10
Posted 00:49 31st October 2011
jose_jones says...
(Holds hands to face and shakes head)....!!!!
Posted 18:24 29th October 2011