Leicester Tigers power to European bonus point Treviso victory

Telusa Veainu scored two tries as Leicester Tigers earned a 3-36 bonus point European Rugby Champions Cup victory over Treviso at Stadio Comunale di Monigo.

Leicester outscored Treviso by five tries to none in the match with two from Telusa Veainu, one each from Peter Betham and Greg Bateman and a penalty try for the visitors.

Tongan winger Veaninu was denied a third or hat-trick try by a TMO decision.

The two-time champions Leicester defeated Stade Francais 33-20 and this is the Tigers’ second successive bonus-point win in the tournament.

The victory rubber-stamped Leicester’s place at the top of Pool 4 with maximum points from their opening two games, while Stade-Francais’ game against Munster was postponed.

For Treviso, this marked a 16th consecutive loss in the Champions Cup and disappointment at only managing a solitary kick from James Ambrosini in front of their home fans.

The Italians came close to beating Leicester at Stadio Monigo three years ago and made a bright start again despite the loss of key players.

However they failed to register early points when James Ambrosini missed a drop goal effort and Tommaso Iannone went close in the corner after strong work by Francesco Minto.

Bell kicked a seventh minute penalty when Minto was penalised at the breakdown.

But it was Leicester’s strength in the scrum that created the game’s first try. Prop Matteo Zanusso was binned in the 18th minute for collapsing the set-piece and French referee Mathieu Raynal awarded a penalty try following from the next scrum.

Bell converted but Leicester failed to add further punishment on the scoreboard against 14 men. But two tries in the five minutes before half-time helped the Tigers take control of the tie.

Tom Croft, who had recovered from a back spasm, set up Brendon O’Connor. Dom Barrow followed before Bell slid through a kick for Veainu to score on 36 minutes.

O’Connor was penalised from the re-start to allow Ambrosini to kick Treviso’s first points.

However Treviso failed to gather the kick-off, Matthew Tait capitalised and Dom Barrow made yards before Veainu floated his pass for wing Betham to beat two men and score on the stroke of half-time. Bell landed his second conversion for a 22-3 lead at the break.

Treviso were reduced to 14 men for a second time in the game when lock Jean-Francis Montauriol was shown a yellow card in the 50th minute for barging Sam Harrison off the ball after Bell chipped ahead.

Leicester kicked the penalty to the corner and thought they had the bonus point but Veainu was ruled to have lost control of the ball over the line.

Treviso steadied the ship and Italy scrum-half Eduardo Gori caused Leicester problems to frustrate the visitors.

Veainu finally clinched the all-important fourth try on 67 minutes when he stepped through three defenders to cross between the posts.

Replacement hooker Bateman then followed in the last minute, shrugging off tackles to score Leicester’s fifth try.

Final Score Treviso 3 (3) Leicester Tigers 36 (22)

Scorers

Treviso
Tries –
Pen – Ambrosini
Con –
Drop –

Leicester Tigers
Tries – penalty, Veainu 2, Betham, Bateman
Pen – Bell
Con – Bell 3, Bai
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France),
Assistant ref: Sebastien Minery (France),
Assistant ref: Vivien Praderie (France),
TMO: Herve Dubes (France),
Citing Commissioner: Jean-Claude Legendre (France)

Teams

Benetton Treviso: Luke McLean; Ludovico Nitoglia, Enrico Bacchin, Samuel Christie, Tommaso Iannone; James Ambrosini, Edoardo Gori (c); Matteo Zanusso, Ornel Gega, Rupert Harden, Filo Paulo, Jean-François Montauriol, Marco Barbini, Francesco Minto, Abraham Jurgens Steyn

Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Matteo Muccignat, Filippo Filippetto, Dean Budd, Marco Lazzaroni, Alberto de Marchi, Christopher Smylie, Andrea Pratichetti

Leicester Tigers: Telusa Veainu; Peter Betham, Matthew Tait (c), Matt Smith, Vereniki Goneva; Thomas Bell, Sam Harrison; Marcos Ayerza, Tom Youngs, Fraser Balmain, Dom Barrow, Michael Fitzgerald, Tom Croft, Brendon O’Connor, Jordan Crane

Replacements: Greg Bateman, Matias Aguero, Dan Cole, Ed Slater, Lachlan McCaffrey, Ben Youngs, Seremaia Bai, George Catchpole.

With thanks to EPCRugby