Fresh Air Sports Show // Fitting farewell to departing players
Edinburgh 44 Treviso 21
The rugby gods were smiling on Scottish rugby on Saturday night. With the international 7s jamboree in Glasgow and the Warriors securing a play-off berth, all was well on the West coast. Along the M8 Edinburgh were saying goodbye to no less than ten departing players with Scotland legend Chris Paterson among them. It seemed obvious then that Paterson was to score on his last outing before moving upstairs into office with the SRU as Edinburgh closed out their season with a victory over Treviso.
Club captain Greig Laidlaw slotted a simple penalty early on before stand out flanker for club and country this season, David Denton, skated over the line. Strong build up play saw Tom Brown and lock Gilchrist combine to drive up to the line on the right. The ball was spun out and Denton took advantage of the gaping hole in the defence to score with Laidlaw converting.
A Treviso infringement at the breakdown allowed Laidlaw to extend the lead as the penalty count began to rise. Italy flanker Alessandro Zanni paid the price -sent to the bin as the pressure began to tell. After a forward pass denied Tim Visser the chance to extend his try scoring feats Edinburgh won a penalty at the resulting scrum. Opting for a repeat inside the Italian 22 the forwards pushed on. A shimmy from Laidlaw and he was over to score; adding the conversion as well.
As it began to look like a one-sided affair Treviso sparked into life. From the kick off they recovered the ball and pushed into the Edinburgh 22. The ball was spread left and Tommaso Benvenuti beat the scramble defence to score in the corner with Burton adding the conversion.
Laidlaw was presented with an easy chance to increase his tally of points to eighteen as the half drew to a close.
A dismal start to the second half saw Treviso lose replacement Brendan Willaims to the sin bin less than four minutes after coming on. Galvanised, the Italians rallied to score, with Winger Ludo Nitoglia nipping round from the blind side to dot down near the posts leaving an easy conversion for Burton.
Attacking down the left the retiring club, and Scotland legend, Chris Paterson went over for the most popular score of the night. A deft Laidlaw chip bounced kindly for Paterson and he beat Luke McLean to dive on the ball to score. Flawless from the tee all night, Laidlaw converted.
The changes began to roll for both sides and with rhythms disrupted Treviso capitalised. A furiously fast attack moved the Italians into the Edinburgh half and a penalty from a high tackle saw them kick to the corner. Edinburgh killed the ball from the lineout and Winger Edoardo Gori was alert to the opportunity, taking a tap penalty which gave Laidlaw little chance to stop the bigger man from five metres out. Burton converted as the game came to life.
The game soon swung back to Edinburgh as Tim Visser slid through from a neat inside pass from Nick De Luca, leaving Laidlaw another simple conversion.
The applause had hardly died from the standing ovation for the substitution of Paterson as the also departing Kyle Traynor crashed over from a yard out as Laidlaw ended the night with a personal haul of twenty-four points. Treviso almost snatched the last laugh but knocked on, leaving the light firmly on Edinburgh and their departing players.
