Leicester 34 Benetton Treviso 3
Leicester bounced back from their opening Heineken Cup defeat at Ulster with a convincing 34-3 victory over Benetton Treviso at Welford Road. The Pool Five success maintained Leicester's 100 per cent record against Italian sides – played 19 won 19 – and also meant they had earned a bonus point in each of Treviso's four visits to Leicester.
Leicester’s tries came from Thomas Waldrom, Tom Youngs, Blaine Scully and Adam Thompstone — with the last move of the game. Toby Flood kicked 14 points. Tobias Botes kicked a penalty for Treviso, who had three players sin-binned, two in the space of two minutes in the second half.
Leicester scored 14 points while the Italians were down to 13 men. Leicester, already without several key players, including both first-choice centres, suffered another blow after just four minutes when Fijian centre Vereniki Goneva went off with a leg injury. He was replaced by 21-year-old Kiwi Terence Hepetema, a recent signing from Australian side Waratahs, who was making his second appearance. The teams were meeting at the pool stage for the fourth time and the fact that Leicester won only 14-13 away and 33-25 at home last year was a sign of the great strides the Italian side have made. They made life difficult for Leicester in the first half with their direct running style but lost the ball in contact too often and trailed 13-0 at half-time.
Leicester looked like they would fail to land a crucial bonus point but in the final minute winger Thompstone stepped inside a defender to score his side's fourth try, with Flood adding the conversion.
LEICESTER: Morris, Scully, Goneva, Bowden, Thompstone, Flood, B. Youngs, Mulipola, T. Youngs, Cole, Kitchener, Parling, Slater, Salvi, Waldrom. Replacements: Hepetema for Goneva (6), Mele for B. Youngs (56), Briggs for T. Youngs (67), Deacon for Kitchener (52), Crane for Waldrom (63).
TREVISO: McLean, Pratichetti, Morisi, Sgarbi, Loamanu, Berquist, Botes, Rizzo, Ceccato, Cittadini, Pavanello, Bernabo, Vosawai, Zanni, Barbieri. Replacements: Ambrosini for Berquist (22), Semenzato for Botes (68), Fernandez-Rouyet for Rizzo (54), Sbaraglini for Ceccato (66), Filippucci for Cittadini (66), Budd for Bernabo (45), Fuser for Vosawai (45), Di Santo for Barbieri (66). Sin Bin: Botes (25), Pavanello (54), Loamanu (55).
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).