Pro Rugby – Edinburgh v Treviso, Guinness PRO12

Edinburgh deliver try-fest for Hodge

Friday night’s match in the Guinness PRO12 league against Italian side Benetton Treviso was, interim coach, Duncan Hodge’s maiden home encounter. Left holding the reins following Alan Solomon’s mid-week departure prior to the Leinster match, Hodge only had a week to put some of his ideas into action before taking on the, what was deemed to be, the relatively straightforward challenge in Round 6.

It was a challenge his fairly young squad took to early on as, with less than eight minutes on the clock, Edinburgh were 14-0 ahead.

The first try came after just four minutes when, under pressure from Treviso just outside their 22, a loose pass was gathered in by wing, Damien Hoyland, who then sprinted the length of the field to go over, albeit with some ‘attention’ from a couple of big forwards, in the right hand corner. Eventual Man-of-the-Match, Jason Tovey then kicked the touch-line conversion for 7-0.

Less than three minutes later, it was 14. Hanging onto the ball a bit better from the restart, the home side brought the play up into the visiting half, with Chris dean proving instrumental with a break up the centre. A quick recycle then put flanker, Hamish Watson through a huge gap to touch down for the second, Tovey converting for the 14 points.

The next period of play was probably shaded by the Italian outfit, who retained a fair bit of possession and won a couple of penalties. The second of these gave stand-off, Tommaso Allan, a shot at goal which he sent over for 14-3.

Just before the half hour mark, Edinburgh scored their third try of the half. Following on from the restart, Treviso, once again, encroached on home territory, but the ball was eventually cleared and the match moved back to familiar areas of the pitch i.e. deep in the away end.

A series of rucks on the left, pulled the defence over and, a quick string of passes found Hoyland on the right wing again.

This time he only had a few metres to go, and had a bit more opposition, but he hammered home to score his second try, and Edinburgh’s third try of the match. Tovey was, this time, unsuccessful with the conversion, but it was 19-3 with 10 minutes of the half remaining.

The fourth, and bonus-point, try for the home side came up just over two minutes later from Marcus Bradbury. With the Italians struggling to put a defence together, Edinburgh launched into ‘enemy’ territory once again, this time Bradbury doing the necessary to sprint in from the edge of the 22. He did get half-tackled about 10 metres out by opposing wing, Angelo Esposito, but he’s a big boy and momentum – plus a bit of scrambling – took him over in ‘Hoyland’s’ corner.

Tovey then slotted home the kick from out wide and the score board showed 26-3, which is where it stayed to the break.

The second half started with a bang for Treviso. Looking dangerous from the off, they quickly gained ground and had the Edinburgh defence struggling to cope. A rolling maul deep in the home 22 then gave them an opportunity, which was seized my lock, Marco Fuser, who peeled off the side of the maul and galloped over the line. A foot on the ball from Tovey, led the referee to go to the TMO for a check, but all was good and, with Allan’s successful conversion, it was 26-10.

That, however, was the last the Italian side saw of the score board, or much of the ball, as Edinburgh went on the score three further tries for a comprehensive victory.

The first of these was scored five minutes after that try by wing, Tom Brown. A great deal of pressure on the Italian line preceded the score, the final pass coming from Tovey, who found Brown with a long pass giving the No. 11 a clear – but short – line in for his trademark dive to score. Once again, Tovey followed up a try with a successful conversion for 33-10.

The faithful had to wait another 20 minutes before the sixth try was chalked up. Treviso probably had the majority of the ball in intervening time, but mistakes and good defence meant that they were finding it difficult to make much headway. The lead-up to the try was set up a few minutes prior to scoring as Tovey popped a speculative ball over the defence and then managed to collect, after a bit of juggling, to make some ground.

This put Edinburgh on the front foot and a penalty line out in the right corner gave them field position for the attack. Once again, with the defence pulled in, the ball was fried across the pitch, and Brown in the right place to cross the line. Tovey was again on the ball and, with less than 10 minutes to go, it was 40-10.

The final try was scored deep into over time. Edinburgh were in possession as the clock turned ‘red’, but they continued to play, with Blair Kinghorne firing over in the left corner to complete the impressive win against, admittedly, one of the weaker sides in the PRO 12 league.

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days