Cardiff's URC campaign ends in humiliation at hands of Treviso
Cardiff’s United Rugby Championship campaign came to a miserable conclusion on Friday night as they were subjected to a 69-21 defeat by Benetton in Treviso.
The hosts had lost their previous five home matches against Welsh opposition but never looked like losing a fixture in which they scored a remarkable 10 tries.
Callum Braley, Tomas Albornoz and Rhyno Smith all touched down twice for the home side, while Lorenzo Cannone, Michele Lamaro, Federico Ruzza and Giovanni Pettinelli were also on the scoresheet.
Smith racked up 29 points for the second week running – the most by any player in a URC match this season.
Cardiff had to make do with two tries from Rhys Carre and one for Max Llewellyn, along with six points from the boot of Rhys Priestland, as they slipped to 14th in the final table.
Benetton applied the early pressure and made the first breakthrough in the 13th minute when Cannone went over following a line-out drive, with Smith adding the extras.
The hosts doubled their advantage three minutes later, with Albornoz taking the pass from Ignacio Brex before exploiting a gap in the Cardiff defence and sprinting for home, opening the door for Smith to split the posts again.
Italy skipper Lamaro was next to go over, running in under the posts after receiving a tidy offload from Ruzza. Smith could hardly have asked for an easier effort from the tee.
A Smith penalty followed and scrum-half Braley clinched the bonus point with another score under the posts that was again converted by Smith.
Carre ensured Cardiff did not end the half pointless, but even with Priestland’s conversion, the visitors trailed 31-7 at the break.
Prop Carre added a second shortly after the resumption, converted by Priestland, but Benetton were soon back in the groove with an excellent team try finished off by Albornoz.
Smith could not add the extras, but he rediscovered his range after some more good hands sent Braley over for his second in the 55th minute.
A Llewellyn try and two more points from Priestland’s boot reduced the arrears to 22, but Smith then scored Benetton’s seventh. Although he could not convert his own score, he did after Ruzza’s subsequent interception try.
Pettinelli then added try number nine before Smith rounded off a fantastic display by carrying Benetton into double figures for tries scored, converting both of the late touchdowns.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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