Benetton Treviso 12
Ulster Rugby 14
MARK ANSCOMBE’S ULSTER earned a hard-fought away win against Treviso at the Stadio Monigo thanks to tries from Darren Cave and Robbie Diack.
The Italians were first on the score sheet when former Leinster out-half Mat Berquist struck with a 6th minute penalty to punish the northern province’s indiscipline, but Ulster burst into the game shortly afterwards.
Ireland international centre Cave took Roger Wilson’s short pass from the base of a ruck just metres short of the Treviso line, before side stepping inside the left shoulder of Ludovico Nitoglia to score.
Ruan Pienaar, playing at out-half this afternoon, added the straightforward conversion to ensure a 7-3 lead for the visitors in the 11th minute. The remainder of the first half was played without any further scoring as both sides struggled to create genuine chances.
Berquist was on target with a second penalty in the 49th minute to draw Treviso back to within a point, but again Ulster responded by manufacturing a try.
After the province had shipped the ball wide to the right for Rory Scholes to offload to Jared Payne, scrum-half Paul Marshall hit Diack on a hard, flat line as the blindside flanker came back against the grain.
Again, the Treviso defence failed to get a meaningful challenge in on the Ulster ball carrier and Diack crossed the whitewash to the right of the posts. Pienaar was successful with his conversion to put Ulster back in control at 14-6 and with just under half an hour left to play.
Treviso kept fighting though, and two further penalties from Berquist in the 57th and 71st minutes resulted in Ulster having to endure a nervy finish. Having sprung the likes of Michael Heaney, Callum Black and Mike McComish from the bench, Anscombe’s charges saw out the victory.
Treviso scorers:
Penalties: Matt Berquist (4)
Ulster scorers:
Tries: Darren Cave, Robbie Diack
Conversions: Ruan Pienaar (2)
TREVISO: B Williams; L Nitoglia, A Sgarbi, E Bacchin, A Pratichetti (J Van Niekerk); M Berquist, F Semenzato (A Lucchese); M Muccignat, F Sbaraglini (E Ceccato), I Fernandez-Rouyet (R Acosta); A Pavanello (capt.), Bernabò (C Van Zyl); M Vosawai (E Lubian), M Swanepoel, M Filippucci.
Replacements not used: Maistri, A di Bernardo.
ULSTER: J Payne; C Gilroy, D Cave, L Marshall, M Allen (R Scholes); R Pienaar, P Marshall (M Heaney); T Court (C Black), R Herring, R Lutton; J Muller (capt.), L Stevenson (N McComb; R Diack, S Doyle (M McComish), R Wilson.
Replacements not used: N Annett, A Macklin, R Andrew.
