Benetton Trevison 24 Connacht 17:BENETTON TREVISO moved up two places to sixth in the Magners League table after a narrow win on Saturday inspired by some impressive kicking from Tobias Botes. Botes racked up 14 of the Italian side's points as they condemned the province to their fourth defeat of the season.
Connacht took an early lead when Ray Ofisa offloaded to Adrian Flavin, who scored under the posts after a well-worked lineout in the fourth minute.
Ian Keatley converted for a 7-0 lead before Botes scored a penalty after Jamie Hagan was penalised at a scrum inside the Connacht half.
The South African added another three points with a quarter of an hour gone when the referee penalised Flavin for hands in the ruck.
Treviso scored their first try of the day after 24 minutes from Burton which Botes converted with ease.
Botes then put Treviso nine points ahead with a penalty kick after Connacht were caught offside on their five-metre line.
Keatley’s penalty brought Connacht within six points of the home side just before the break.
It was Treviso, however, who scored next with Ludovico Nitoglia breaking away to go over in the corner.
Connacht brought on Bernie Upton, Troy Nathan, Barry Fa’amausili and Frank Murphy as he looked to inspire a second-half comeback from the away side.
The move looked to have paid off when Fionn Carr beat three tackles to off-load to Murphy who found Niva Ta’auso on the left wing to score under the posts.
Keatley’s conversion closed the gap to four points but a late penalty from Botes sealed the win.
BENETTON TREVISO: B Williams; L Nitoglia, T Benvenuti, G Garcia, J Maddock; C Burton, T Botes; I Rouyet, L Ghiraldini, P Di Santo, A Pavanello, C van Zyl, B Vermaak, A Zanni, R Barbieri. Replacements: L Cittadini for Rouyet, F Sbaraglini for Ghiraldini, M Muccignat for Di Santo (all 50 mins), A Sgarbi for Garcia, S Picone for Vermaak (both 60 mins), E Pavanello for A Pavanello (77 mins). Scorers: Botes try, 4 pens, con; Burton try.
CONNACHT: G Duffy; D Fanning, N Ta’auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, C Willis; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan, M Swift, M McCarthy, J O’Connor, R Ofisa, J Muldoon. Replacements: E Taylor for Ofisa (25 mins), B Fa’amausili for Hagan (45 mins), B Upton for Taylor (52 mins), D Murphy for Willis (57 mins), R Loughney for Wilkinson (63 mins), M Nikora for Keatley (65 mins). Scorers: Flavin, Ta’auso try each; Keatley pen, 2 cons.
Referee: T Hayes (IRFU).
