Benetton v Edinburgh

[The Feral Goat]

15. Wes Goosen (47)
14. Matt Currie (54)
13. James Lang (66)
12. Mosese Tuipulotu (15)
11. Ross McCann (8)
10. Ross Thompson (16)
9. Ben Vellacott (71) CAPTAIN

1. Boan Venter (82)
2. Ewan Ashman (30)
3. Paul Hill (13)
4. Marshall Sykes (78)
5. Sam Skinner (35)
6. Ben Muncaster (40)
7. Hamish Watson (170)
8. Magnus Bradbury (124)

Replacements

16. Paddy Harrison (26)
17. Robin Hislop (28)
18. D’arcy Rae (18)
19. Glen Young (43)
20. Freddy Douglas (2)
21. Ali Price (31)
22. Cammy Scott (14)
23. Jack Brown*


Benetton

15 Rhyno Smith (68)
14 Ignacio Mendy (34)
13 Tommaso Menoncello (55)
12 Ignacio Brex (95)
11 Paolo Odogwu (13)
10 Jacob Umaga (50)
9 Andy Uren (39)

8 Toa Halafihi (86)
7 Manuel Zuliani (65)
6 Alessandro Izekor (52)
5 Eli Snyman (C) (56)
4 Scott Scrafton (16)
3 Simone Ferrari (117)
2 Bautista Bernasconi (35)
1 Thomas Gallo (70)

Available: 16 Agustin Creevy (5), 17 Mirco Spagnolo (29), 18 Giosué Zilocchi (26), 19 Federico Ruzza (126), 20 Riccardo Favretto (50), 21 Michele Lamaro (77), 22 Alessandro Garbisi (62), 23 Tomas Albornoz (63).

[The Feral Goat]

Pretty strong Benetton team, particularly in the backs.

Massive game for us, if we could scrape a win that would be massive for our top8 chances.

[The Feral Goat]

Chokers LawrenceBryce poor.

[Pitfitter1105]

Thought we might have just hung on, AlanLewis.

[Frank]

I don't know how any team can function with such inconsistent refereeing. Mr Evans is a shocker and I hope that's the last time we see him.
On the game, I thought we showed much better cohesion and resilience than we have at previous visits to Treviso. We seem to lack to see out these close away games. Benetton were poor today and we still couldn't close it out. Looks like the top 8 is a distant fantasy.

[The Feral Goat]

I don't know how any team can function with such inconsistent refereeing. Mr Evans is a shocker and I hope that's the last time we see him.
On the game, I thought we showed much better cohesion and resilience than we have at previous visits to Treviso. We seem to lack to see out these close away games. Benetton were poor today and we still couldn't close it out. Looks like the top 8 is a distant fantasy.

Couple of really poor decisions but we should have won that. Our pack were in top for 50+ minutes, Thompson controlled the game pretty well behind them with some good sensible kicking in crappy conditions, then it went to SteveWalsh for some reason perhaps benetton bench with their 6N players coming on made the difference i don't think cammy scott or jack brown got on, if coach does not have confidence in them and they are only injury cover we are going to struggle.

Top 8 is still very much on we are 4 points off 5th but only 3 above 15th, tightest i remember the league being.

Dragons (H)
Sharks (H)
Zebre (A)
Connacht (A)
Ulster (H)

We have more internationalists to come back than any of the teams we are left to face, win these games we finish top8 but we have to be putting in 80min performances and using all 23 players.

[Castlecannon]

This was a 50/ 50 game albeit Benetton had more opportunities. Our attack from hands was as ever average but I thought pack and Vellacot kept us on it . Tuipolotu’s sending off was inexcusable but hopefully he learns from it and not to be repeated .

[doedin]

I watched the Glasgow game on Friday and then us yesterday and these games show the difference between the teams. Glasgow played awful yet had bite and determination and put their heads down, played smart and won the game despite being 2nd best. They never led until they got their final score and then held firm for last few minutes. We were leading with 2 mins left and had a line out in the Benneton half, easy run the game down territory I thought. Line out lost and then poor defending lets their 6 gallop down the wing from miles out to lose the game. Mentality our players looked like they knew they were going to lose!

We played ok for most of the game without ever looking like getting a big enough lead. Our line out was plain awful most of the game, even allowing for the weather. We knew given the weather it was always going to be about kicking and territory so lots of line outs yet ours failed miserably throughout. I presume that's why Young came on at half time to add another line out option? Very poor preparation.

Cant really see us make the top 8 to be honest.

[liveinhope]

It was a great pity at the end.All we needed was a throw to the front of the lineout and a couple of drives to see out the last 100 seconds.Then we would having been praising a tremendous victory.Very small margins.
Actually I thought Vellacott and Thomson marshalled the game extremely well most of the time and look a very much better combination than Healy and Price.Hamish Watson having a bit of an indian summer these last two games-though Douglas had an excellent 15 minutes and should have one the match for us with that jackal penalty on 78 mins.
I'd be tempted to go with the same combination next week (bar Tuipolotu of course) and give the 6N guys another weeks rest.

[Castlecannon]

I agree with the point on starting the same team for Dragons notwithstanding suspension and injury .. So important to keep confidence levels up and the building of rhythm at halfback and midfield . I would expect Currie to move off the wing and partner Lang with VDM covering wing. Possibly might see Dave Cherry take a slot on the bench but certainly resting Darcy, Ritchie , Schoeman and Gilchrist for one more week could pay dividends later in the season .

[Pitfitter1105]

We thought about travelling to this game but found it clashed with other travel, if we had been there the result may have had an impact on season ticket renewal, as it stands if the season continues downhill, renewal might not be such a given.