Treviso held out for a memorable 33-32 victory over the Dragons in their RaboDirect PRO12 match in Newport on Friday.
20-year-old Lewis Robling and Italy international Kristopher Burton exchanged penalties early on but the home side looked the more confident with ball in hand and, after some smart handling from the centres created the space, former Wales winger Aled Brew strolled over in the left-hand corner for the first try.
The hosts could not hold onto their lead for long though as flying winger Tonderei Chavhanga was turned over at the wrong end of the pitch and Alessandro Zanni took full advantage to level the scores at 8-8 for the Italians.
Burton and Robling again exchanged three points as the half wore on and, just as it looked like the sides would go in level at half-time, Brew intercepted a loose pass from centre Alberto Sgarbi to score his second of the match.
As it happened, the teams did head into the interval on level terms though as full-back Luke McLean crossed for Treviso on the final play of the half to make it 18-18.
The Dragons started the second half brightly and were able to take advantage of some weak defence in the opening stages as the player of the Six Nations Dan Lydiate fed Ashley Smith, who straightened before setting up Toby Faletau to score in the corner.
Again the Welshmen were unable to hold onto their seven-point lead though as Burton charged down his opposite number Robling and carried the ball over the line.
The try-scorer couldn't add the conversion but the game was still nicely poised at 25-23 going into the final quarter.
And when openside flanker Lewis Evans was sent to the sin bin for the home side, Treviso began to dominate territory and possession more and more by the minute.
The visitors were unable to convert the territory into a try but Burton gave them the lead with a precious drop-goal.
And that lead became eight points when Sgarbi atoned for the intercept he had thrown in the first half by scoring an intercept try of his own, this time taking advantage of a misplaced pass from replacement Jason Tovey.
The Dragons did pull to within one point again with two minutes remaining as Adam Hughes went over but the Italians held on to record their first away victory since December and leapfrog their hosts in the table in the process.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Tries: Brew 2, Faletau, Hughes
Con: Hughes 3
Pens: Robling 2
For Treviso:
Tries: Zanni, McLean, Burton, Sgarbi
Cons:Burton 2
Pens: Burton 3
Yellow cards: Evans (Dragons - 66th min); Rizzo (Treviso - 69thmin), Semenzato (Treviso - 75th min)
The teams:
Dragons: 15 Will Harries, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Adam Hughes, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Lewis Robling, 9 Joe Bedford, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Lewis Evans, 6 Danny Lydiate, 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Luke Charteris (capt), 3 Nathan Buck, 2 Sam Parry, 1 Nathan Williams.
Replacements: 16 Steve Jones, 17 Phil Price, 18 Dan Way, 19 Scott Morgan, 20 Tom Brown, 21 Wayne Evans, 22 Jason Tovey, 23 Hallam Amos.
Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Tommaso Iannone, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Brendan Williams, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Marco Filippucci, 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello (capt), 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Franco Sbaraglini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 19 Valerio Bernaḅ, 20 Francesco Minto, 21 Simon Picone, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Alberto Di Bernardo.
Referee: James Matthew (Scotland)
Comments
jontheref says...
Well done |Treviso, well done the ref.
let's hope he doesn't become jaded and keeps to his high standards.
Yellow for Treviso came far to late, couple of times in the first half deserved one as well.
Might have a good Scottish ref, after a long wait.
Dragons could have won, but are not as clinical as they like to think.
Posted 09:07 14th April 2012
Lucasrg says...
AWESOME!!!
Posted 23:09 13th April 2012