London Irish 42 Benetton Treviso 9 - The Perfect Start

Paddy Lennon reports from Madejski Stadium.

London Irish had a perfect start to this season’s Heineken Cup qualifying pool stage at Madejski Stadium yesterday afternoon when they defeated Benetton Treviso by 42-9. A seven try, bonus point-winning performance means that the Exiles sit on top of pool 1 with maximum points after the opening round of matches.

In scoring seven tries – two in the first half and five in the second, Bob Casey’s team sent a clear message to the other two teams in the pool – Perpignan and Newport Gwent Dragons, “we may not be favourites to win the pool, but have no doubt about our determination to qualify for the knock-out stages.”

That determination to qualify was evident in many aspects of the team’s performance. It was apparent, for example, in the opening quarter that Irish had learned lessons from last year’s experience. Marshalled by Bob Casey and Mike Catt, Irish were patient with Treviso’s blatant attempts at slowing the game and killing the ball. By contrast last season, such activities by the opposition would have induced frustration.

Yesterday there was little frustration on display, only a clear intent to go and play rugby, to attack from deep in so far as possible and let the players’ skills speak for themselves. Yes, for the purist, there may have been some unhappiness at the level of ring rustiness on display, however, given that this was the first competitive match that many of the Exiles’ team had played together, it was only to be expected that it was like a pre-season game at times as players adjusted to playing together.

On a perfect afternoon for rugby, it was Treviso in their pink shirts that caught the eye – an unsubtle reminder of the Benetton ownership, in the opening exchanges. As is so often the case, the current Italian champions decided that attack was the better form of defence. Irish were fortunate in the sixth minute that an interception was made by prop forward Salvatore Constanzo and not one of the backs. Tomas De Vedia was able to track back and make a telling tackle.

The opening score went to Treviso’s captain, Marius Goosen who confidently slotted a 39 metre penalty between the posts in the eight minute. The lead was short-lived as Irish drew level through a Peter Hewat penalty for an offence committed after the re-start.

As the game moved into its second quarter Irish were beginning to dominate territory and possession. Key combinations were beginning to work. Seilala Mapusua who had an outstanding game at inside centre, began to probe the visitors’ defence. His break through left midfield in the 22nd minute resulted in a penalty which was kicked to touch by Catt. Casey won the resulting five metre lineout and set the rolling maul, the Italians were unable to stop it and Juan Leguizamon announced his return in the best possible manner by touching down for Irish’s opening try. Peter Hewat missed with the difficult touchline conversion.

Treviso came back immediately and Goosen’s second penalty, another long range effort from 45 metres, brought the score to 8-6. The game can best be described as scrappy at this point as a series of injury breaks by Treviso meant that Irish could not build any momentum. To their credit Irish refused to be frustrated and Mapusua and Leguizamon were prominent once again as Irish tried to build from deep in their half.

The long passes of Catt and Peter Richards repeatedly caused problems for the Treviso defence and Irish were unlucky not to have more to show as Peter Hewat joined the backs line time and again to create defence-splitting passes for Topsy Ojo and Tomas De Vedia.

All the rugby and associated skills were coming from Irish but a well organised visitors’ defence was proving resilient to the extent that after a series of phases of pressure just short of the Treviso try line, Juan Leguizamon made an unsuccessful if spectacular attempt at dropping a goal in the 34th minute. Delon Armitage was next to threaten with a break through midfield but one felt the score was inevitable.

The game had just entered first half injury time when Topsy Ojo was judged to have been held up over the try line in the left corner. The resulting scrum gave Irish another opportunity and a brave drive by Dan Murphy saw him stopped short only for Peter Richards to pick up the ball and dive over for a try that saw Irish go into the break leading 13-6.

The opening exchanges of the second half brought no relief for the Italian Champions as Richards and Catt orchestrated affairs. The visitors’ full back, Brendan Williams was sin-binned for killing the ball in the 45th minute. Irish ruthlessly set about exploiting their man advantage. The try followed just two minutes later when Richards sent Hewat in left of the posts. The full back adding the extras to stretch the lead to 20-6.

Goosen kicked his third penalty in the 53rd minute to reduce the lead but it was only temporary relief. A searing break by Richards through the middle of the field deserved reward; that followed when the England international scrum half combined with his former England colleague, Catt to create a chance for Delon Armitage who exploited a gap and stretched to touch down for Irish’s bonus point-winning try in the 57th minute. Hewat converted to take the score to 27-9.

Paul Hodgson replaced Catt to add another dimension to Irish’s attacking options but the next crucial intervention for Irish was in defence when Kieran Roche capped another fine display with an important lineout steal on his five metre line.

The home supporters were enjoying what can only be described as champagne rugby as backs and forwards inter-acted across the pitch. Every member of the home team wanted to be a play-maker. One minute it was Declan Danaher, the next it was Sailosi Tagicakibau who replaced Topay Ojo, next it was David Paice who set up a top class passing move involving Richards and Hodgson to give Tomas De Vedia a try in the left corner. Hewat’s conversion attempt bounced off the left upright.

A series of replacements by both teams either side of the 70th minute resulted in uncontested scrums as the Italians ran out of front row substitutes. Steffon Armitage capped a fine display as an impact sub by finishing off another passage of brilliant handling with a try to the left of the posts. Hewat missed the conversion.

The final touch of play-making magic fell to Tonga Lea’aetoa in the third minute of injury time when he took a quick tap penalty 15 metres from the Treviso try line and passed to Richards who glided through a stunned defence for his second and Irish’s seventh try of the game. The conversion was missed to leave the final score 42-9.

Irish will set out on next Saturday’s trip to Newport with confidence but wary that playing in Wales is always a challenge as their experiences last season in Cardiff and Llanelli and a fortnight ago in Swansea confirm.

Scorers: London Irish:Tries: Legizamon (23), Richards 2 (40+3, 80+3), Hewat (47), Armitage, D (57), De Vedia (65), Armitage, S (74); Conversions:Hewat 2. Penalty goal: Hewat (10). Benetton Treviso: Penalty goals: Goosen 3 (8, 25, 53).

Scoring sequence(London Irish first): 0-3, 3-3, 8-3, 8-6, 13-6 (half-time) 20-6, 20-9, 27-9, 32-9, 37-9, 42-9.

London Irish: P Hewat, T Ojo (rep: S Tagicakibau, 61), D Armitage (rep: S Armitage, 67), S Mapusua, T De Vedia, M Catt (rep: P Hodgson, 59), P Richards, D Murphy (rep: R Skuse, 70), D Paice, T Lea’aetoa, N Kennedy (rep: J Hudson, 70), B Casey (captain), K Roche, D Danaher, J Leguizamon (rep: R Thorpe, 70).

Benetton Treviso: B Williams (sin-bin: 45-55), L Borges (rep: A Sgarbi, 67), M Horak, M Goosen (captain), B De Jager, A Marcato, S Picone (rep: F Semenzato, 33), N De Gregori (rep: R Barbieri, 70), F Sbaraglini (rep: D Vidal, 47), S Contanzo (rep: P Di Santo, 42), A Pavanello, C Van Zyl, R Barbieri (rep: S Orlando, 48), F Louw, D Kingi (rep: S Palmer, 68).

Referee: Mr Tim Hayes (WRU)

Attendance: 6,771

Apologies for the delayed publication of this match report, it has been due to communications difficulties with the website.

Match Statistics

42		9
T C P DG Player         Dan Murphy         David Paice         Tonga Lea'aetoa         Bob Casey         Nick Kennedy         Kieran Roche         Declan Danaher 1       Juan Leguizamon 2       Peter Richards         Mike Catt 1       Tomas De Vedia         Seilala Mapusua 1       Delon Armitage         Topsy Ojo 1 2 1   Peter Hewat         Richard Skuse         Danie Coetzee         James Hudson         Richard Thorpe 1       Steffon Armitage         Paul Hodgson         Sailosi Tagicakibau	Position 1. L/Prop 2. Hooker 3. T/Prop 4. Lock 5. Lock 6. B/Flanker 7. O/Flanker 8. No 8 9. Scrum-half 10. Fly-half 11. Wing 12. Centre 13. Centre 14. Wing 15. Fullback 16. Sub 17. Sub 18. Sub 19. Sub 20. Sub 21. Sub 22. Sub	Player T C P DG Vittorio Candiago         Enrico Ceccato         Matteo Muccignat         Hottie Louw         Antono Pavenello         Silvio Orlando         Zane Ansell         Robert Barbieri         Simon Picone         Marius Goosen 3       Benjamin De Jager         Nathan Mauger         Michael Horak         Lucas Borges         Brendan Williams         Salvatore Costanzo         Diego Vidal         Michel Sutto         Scott Palmer         Marco Filippuci         Fabio Semenzato         Andrea Marcato