Four penalties: Kris Burton
Treviso caused the first major shock of the RaboDirect PRO12 season as they defeated champions the Ospreys 12-6 at Stadio Comunale di Monigo.
With a day of torrential rain and the odd flash of lightning as a backdrop at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo, the home side made an industrious start to the game as the Ospreys' ill-discipline was proving to be their downfall.
With the wind at his back, Kristopher Burton kicked three penalties, one of which saw the sin-binning of Wales international lock Ian Evans sin, giving the home side a 9-0 lead.
Ospreys fly-half Dan Biggar and Burton exchanged penalties to take the score to 12-3 before Evans was shown a second yellow card and therefore sent off for a high tackle on fly-half Alberto Di Bernado.
The Welsh region's failure to control their own set-piece possession enabled the Italian side to camp in their half for much of the first period with the impressive Trevsio back-row of Simone Favaro, Alessandro Zanni, and Robert Barbieri thriving in the wet conditions.
The defending champions showed encouraging signs at the start of the second half but the Treviso pack continued their impressive dominance as their driving maul was proving to be a formidable weapon.
The only points of the second half came via a Biggar penalty in what was becoming an error-strewn encounter.
Despite playing nearly an hour with 14-men, the 4-times champions have only themselves to blame for not registering an opening RaboDirect weekend win.
Biggar missed three simple penalties, winger Tom Isaacs spilt the ball with the try-line beckoning, centre Ashley Beck was held up over the line and Treviso prop Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet and replacement second-row Dean Budd were both sin-binned in the second half.
The scorers:
For Treviso:
Pen: Burton 4
For Ospreys:
Pen: Biggar 2
Treviso: 15 Kristopher Burton, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Tommaso Iannone, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Alberto Di Bernardo, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Simone Favaro, 5 Corniel Van Zyl (c), 4 Francesco Minto, 3 Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet, 2 Enrico Ceccato, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Dean Budd, 20 Paul Derbyshire, 21 Marco Filippucci, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Brendan Williams.
Ospreys: 15 Richard Fussell, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Andrew Bishop, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Tom Isaacs, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Jonathan Thomas, 7 Sam Lewis, 6 James King, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun Wyn Jones (capt), 3 Aaron Jarvis, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Joe Rees, 19 Joe Bearman, 20 Morgan Allen, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Matthew Morgan, 23 Tom Grabham.
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Giuseppe Vivarini (Italy), Andrea Spadoni (Italy)
Television match official: Alan Falzone (Italy)
Comments
Carpelone says...
Grazie, Luca.
Posted 15:58 02nd September 2012
Lucasrg says...
@Carpelone
In Italy the Celtic league is on SportItalia channel. ;-)
Posted 21:59 01st September 2012
GoWalesGo says...
This was a woeful example of professional rugby
Posted 19:07 01st September 2012
Carpelone says...
The Celtic League is crap.
Where the hell do they broadcast? Treviso was not at full strength.
Posted 14:50 01st September 2012
makemehappy says...
Awful game and whilst not a shock, one can hardly say that Treviso, who played no rugby all night, deserved to win. Shocking refereeing decisions (no the early penalties against the Ospreys were bonkers, I replayed the footage time and time again looking for off-sides, but there were none). Lunatic yellow card decision (first one) against Ian Evans. Ospreys should easily have won, but didn't and even a man down, they created far more opportunities than Treviso, and only have themselves to blame for not winning comforably (at least 3 times it was easier to score a try than not).
Posted 11:37 01st September 2012
lele says...
well done treviso
barbieri zanni and favaro...uhm...great hope for italy!
Posted 10:39 01st September 2012
jontheref says...
No complaints about the result.
Off day for Biggar with the boot.
Ospreys needed longer studs in their boots.
Three tries went begging from slipping metres from the line.
Lacey, who had a good game, was very hot around the breakdown, thought he was wrong, especially with the O's PK when kahn passed the ball into the stationary playe.
I thought once he had set his standards when he yellow carded Evans,( for what looked like Treviso's poor passing) he had painted himself into a corner. But he was consistent.
Not a good start to the defence of the title!
Posted 09:18 01st September 2012
melkdave says...
Watched this match on the net.1st off let me say conditions where not great,but it was still a quite extertaining game.The Ospreys will be kicking themselves this morning,indisapline in the 1st half saw them giveaway 3 really stupid penalties ,and have Evans sent off for 2 yellow cards,which allowed Treviso to go in at half time 12-3 ahead.Given that tthe Ospreys really dominated the 2nd half ,and they had oppotunities to win this match comfortably.D.Bigger missed 3 penalties ,which is very unusual for him,and they conspired to muck up 2 gilt edged try scoring chances,and annother which could have been..Treviso despite being a man up ,didnt show anything of note ,and despite having a powerfull pack really struggled ,they will have to play alot better this season if they want to challange for anything.Or even get a mid table finish imo.Ospreys meanwhile showed they where a class above ,but will have to be alot more precise and disaplined if they are going to defend their championship
Posted 09:03 01st September 2012
Lucasrg says...
What a messy game, the pitch was a dump! But this is exactly what I preview, the Treviso flanker made the difference, although the red was pretty compromising.
Well done Treviso.Bravi!
Posted 02:33 01st September 2012
leinster_goy says...
not really surprising. treviso are a good team and the ospreys are jammy (no romain poite to help them to victory tonight?)
Posted 01:25 01st September 2012