Benetton v Lions: Five takeaways as Louis Lynagh’s ‘attacking artistry’ catches the eye while visitors are their ‘own worst enemy’

Following Benetton’s 41-15 win over the Lions in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at Stadio Monigo in Treviso on Saturday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the thrilling action.

The top line

With both of these sides employing attacking game-plans, this was an entertaining encounter characterised with plenty of end-to-end action for the full 80 minutes.

The game started at a frenetic pace with Benetton testing the Lions‘ defence with some fine attacking play from the outset but it was the visitors who got the opening points courtesy of a Chris Smith penalty in the second minute.

However, Benetton was soon rewarded when Rhyno Smith crossed for the opening try a few minutes later before Louis Lynagh and Simone Ferrari also dotted down for the hosts, who were holding a 20-3 lead midway through the half.

The Lions struck back when Asenathi Ntlabakanye went over for their opening try in the 27th minute but another Lynagh five-pointer on the half hour-mark meant Benetton had their tails up with the score 24-10 in their favour at half-time and their bonus point in the bag.

The initial stages of the second half was a tighter affair as the visitors were more competitive in all facets of play but lost their way during the latter stages of the match.

Jacob Umaga added an early penalty soon after the restart for Benetton and the hosts led 27-10 for most of the remainder of this clash. However, a yellow card to Rynhardt Jonker in the 69th minute helped Benetton to finish with a flurry.

Lynagh sealed his hat-trick soon after before Conraad van Vuuren struck back for the visitors in the 78th minute. Despite that score, Benetton hammered home their dominance when Lynagh crossed for his fourth try in the game’s dying moments to seal an emphatic win for his side.

After missing this year’s Six Nations due to a serious knee injury, this performance showed that he is back to his best and his attacking artistry will come in handy for the Azzurri during the upcoming Autumn Nations Series.

Benetton’s improvement continues

The Italian outfit have been on an upward trajectory for some time now and were unlucky to miss out on the URC‘s quarter-finals last season when they finished in 10th position in the standings.

In March, Benetton replaced Marco Bortolami with Calum MacRae as the side’s new head coach and that decision has reaped rewards.

The men from Treviso were competitive in their tournament opener away to Connacht before claiming a stunning last-gasp victory over Glasgow Warriors last weekend.

Those results gave them plenty of confidence as they came into this encounter and MacRae deserves plenty of credit as his side stayed true to their attacking roots and eventually outscored their visitors by six tries to two.

In this encounter, they found the perfect balance between the grunt delivered by their forwards and the attacking flair dished up by their backline and were deserved winners in the end.

Louis Lynagh shows his class

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and snubbed Springbok star as rampant Stormers nil Scarlets

The Italy flyer was his side’s hero as he came to the fore with an outstanding attacking performance and was rewarded with four well-taken tries.

From the outset the 24-year-old hit the ground running and was rewarded with his opening try in the 14th minute after running a good support line before gathering an inside pass from Smith.

Lynagh still had work to do as the cover defence gave chase but his searing pace got him over the whitewash from about 35 metres out. His second try as arguably the best of the lot as he caught the Lions napping at a ruck just inside their half and he breached the initial line of defence after running a terrific line and once again his speed did the rest.

His attacking brilliance and excellent support play got the job done for his other two tries during the latter stages of the clash.

He couldn’t hide his delight afterwards as he revealed in the post-match interview that it’s the first time in his career that he has scored more than two tries in a game.

More questions than answers for the Lions

The visitors came into this encounter in a desperate mood as they lost both their previous matches in this season’s URC, against Cardiff and Zebre Parma, but it was more of the same as they failed to fire for the third successive match.

That means Ivan van Rooyen’s troops have now lost 13 successive away matches and they will have to improve that statistic if they want to challenge for honours in this competition.

From the outset against Benetton, the Lions were their own worst enemy as they committed a plethora of unforced errors which proved costly in the grander scheme of things.

They showed good intent after Benetton made their fast start and did brilliantly to shift the ball out wide to Angelo Davids, who crossed the whitewash but television replays revealed that he lost the ball while crossing the try-line.

Not long after that, they also launched a lineout drive deep inside Benetton’s 22 but their forwards lost control of the ball in the maul.

Apart from their unforced errors, they also struggled defensively as they gave Benetton’s attackers too much space on attack and head coach Van Rooyen and his backroom staff will have plenty of homework ahead of next weekend’s clash with the Scarlets in Johannesburg.

Loss of Springboks star hampers Lions

The men from Johannesburg received a major boost in the build-up to this fixture when their star scrum-half Morne van den Berg joined their ranks after helping Springboks to defend the Rugby Championship title.

Van den Berg was arguably the Lions’ best player during their 2024/25 campaign and is one of the most improved players in the Springboks set-up.

He is a vital cog in the Lions machine and his return to their ranks was expected to help them secure that much needed victory for this URC campaign.

The 27-year-old looked lively during the early exchanges but the visitors suffered a major setback in the 11th minute when he was forced off for an HIA which he subsequently failed.

Without Van den Berg on the field, the Lions lost direction and battled during the rest of the match. They will without his services when they host the Scarlets next week but hopefully he will not be sidelined for too long as his presence makes a big difference to his team.

READ MORE: Munster retain unbeaten URC status after pipping ill-disciplined Edinburgh