Treviso 6
Connacht 9
CONNACHT GOT BACK to winning ways in the Guinness Pro12 as they scraped a 9-6 victory away to Treviso, surviving a late scare to secure the four points.
Pat Lam’s men may not have been pleased with their performance in Italy, but three penalties from the boot of Craig Ronaldson were enough to secure the western province their fourth win of the campaign.
While there were few thrills for Connacht’s band of travelling fans at Stadio Monigo, the victory will be greatly welcome as Lam’s squad continue to work towards a top six finish in the league.
Connacht enjoyed dominance of possession and territory in the opening half, but could muster only two penalties from inside centre Ronaldson to go in tied 6-6 at the break.
Line busts from Jack Carty and man of the match Darragh Leader in the first 40 were not capitalised on, while Robbie Henshaw will have been frustrated to knock-on from a Connacht scrum five metres out from the Italians’ tryline.
Much of the credit for the lack of tries went to Treviso though, as Umberto Casellato’s men presented a well-connected defensive line and hammered into their tackles aggressively.
A startling counter-attack almost saw the home side dot down as the game entered the second quarter, but Kieran Marmion darted back to rescue the situation, as confirmed by the TMO.
Fullback Jayden Hayward struck with two long-range penalties for Treviso to bring them into half time level, and manufactured a big linebreak heading into the interval, with Connacht managing to scramble back to recover again.
The Kiwi fullback was wide with his third effort of the night, however, dragging a penalty to the left of the posts early in the second half.
Both sides were temporarily reduced to 14 men with 60 minutes on the clock, as Marmion and Treviso out-half Sam Christie got a 10-minute breather for an exchange of blows off the ball.
With Lam beginning to empty his bench looking for impact, a strong Connacht maul saw Treviso replacement Francesco Minto swim up the side and concede a penalty, which Ronaldson duly slotted for a 9-6 Connacht lead.
When the Italians failed to released in the tackle with eight minutes left to play, the former Lansdowne man had another shot at goal, but was wide with his effort to leave the game nail-bitingly poised heading into the closing minutes.
But Connacht held out, surviving a late scare as they forced a turnover on their own tryline to deny Treviso what would have been a heart-breaking try.
In doing so, Lam’s men picked up a precious four points at a venue where they lost last season.
Treviso scorers:
Penalties: J Hayward [2 from 2]
Connacht scorers:
Penalties: C Ronaldson [3 from 5]
TREVISO: Jayden Hayward; Ludovico Nitoglia, Luca Morisi, Enrico Bacchin (Simone Ragusi’ ’71), Michele Campagnaro; Sam Christie (YC ’60), Edoardo Gori (Alberto Lucchese ’68); Matteo Zanusso (Albert Anae ’66), Davide Giazzon, Rupert Harden (Romulo Acosta ’66); Marco Fuser (Tomas Vallejos Cinalli ’66), Corniel Van Zyl (capt.) (Antonio Pavanello ’41); Simone Favaro, Alessandro Zanni, Mat Luamanu (Francesco Minto ’42).
Replacements not used: Amar Kudin.
CONNACHT: Darragh Leader (Dave McSharry ’73); Niyi Adeolokun (Danie Poolman ’57), Robbie Henshaw, Craig Ronaldson, Matt Healy (Danie Poolman ’13-’20 blood sub); Jack Carty, Kieran Marmion (YC ’60; Denis Buckley (Ronan Loughney ’63), Shane Delahunt (Dave Heffernan ’35-’40 concussion bin, ’52 permanent), Rodney Ah You (Finlay Bealham ’73); Mick Kearney, Quinn Roux (Aly Muldowney ’54); John Muldoon (capt.), Eoin McKeon, George Naoupu (Willie Faloon ’65).
Replacements not used: Ian Porter.
Referee: David Wilkinson [IRFU].
