Treviso V Scarlets

Benetton Treviso have won just one of their last six RaboDirect PRO12 encounters: 12-6 over Ospreys at Stadio Monigo on the opening day of the new season.

Treviso have won two of their last three games against the Welsh regions.

Scarlets' four game winning run ended at home to Ospreys on Friday, but they still sit atop the PRO12 table. Scarlets have won their last three away games but have not won four in a row on the road in the tournament since May 2004.

Each side won its respective home game when the two teams met last season, whilst the men from West Wales' only previous win in Treviso came during the pool games in the 2010/11 European Cup.

Treviso Team

15 Luke McLean
14 Tommaso Benvenuti
13 Alberto Sgarbi
12 Luca Morisi
11 Tommaso Iannone
10 Kristopher Burton
9 Tobias Botes

8 Robert Barbieri
7 Alessandro Zanni
6 Simone Favaro
5 Valerio Bernabò
4 Antonio Pavanello (captain)
3 Lorenzo Cittadini
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini
1 Michele Rizzo

On the bench:

16 Franco Sbaraglini
17 Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet
18 Pedro Di Santo
19 Francesco Minto
20 Dean Budd
21 Paul Derbyshire
22 Fabio Semenzato
23 Alberto Di Bernardo



Scarlets Team

15 Jordan Williams,
14 Liam Williams,
13 Gareth Maule,
12 Jon Davies,
11 Andy Fenby,
10 Rhys Priestland,
9 Gareth Davies,

1 Phil John,
2 Matthew Rees,
3 Deacon Manu,
4 Sione Timani,
5 George Earle,
6 Josh Turnbull,
7 Johnathan Edwards,
8 Rob McCusker (capt).

Replacements: Ken Owens, Peter Edwards, Samson Lee, Aaron Shingler, Kieran Murphy, Tavis Knoyle, Adam Warren, Kristian Phillips.

At Stadio Monigo, 7.05pm.
Referee: Andrew McMenemy (SRU, 14th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Carlo Damasco, Simone Boaretto (both FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Maurizio Vancini (FIR)
TMO: Alan Falzone (FIR)

Live on Sportitalia

LIVE COVERAGE - The match will be broadcast live on Sportitalia (channel 61 of the DTT, channel 226 of Sky) with live commentary by Daniele Piervincenzi and Tommaso Visentin.

A good Scarlets team but thats a banana skin of a match. Treviso at home are tough to beat. I think they will win it.

It's good to see we've chosen a strong side - but surprised that Edwards is in instead of the more physical Shingler - still good team and nice to see Davies and Jordan Williams getting gametime.

Just noticed that Kirsten Phillips is on the bench - that's a bit of a surprise - I wonder if he'll get on.

Treviso have proved to be no mugs at home so its good see a strong Scarlets side and this will be a good test for them.

Yup, I'm really looking forward to seeing the squad in around two months when our new signings are with us and up and running, then we'll be able to have even greater ability to switch our locks dependant on opposition and also have the ability to switch Manu to LH if needed, with Adriaanse and Lee covering TH. (we must be the only side in the league with more THs than LHs)

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Yup, I'm really looking forward to seeing the squad in around two months when our new signings are with us and up and running, then we'll be able to have even greater ability to switch our locks dependant on opposition and also have the ability to switch Manu to LH if needed, with Adriaanse and Lee covering TH. (we must be the only side in the league with more THs than LHs)

Yeah...about that.... Can you wait about 23 days before kicking on with that.

Unless you want to beat Clermont away in the mean time.

Hoping for a Terviso win, and a good H-cup campainge from them.

Most Prem fans, don't believe us when we say Terviso and Connacht are much improved. They are both about a level with London Irish, Sale Sharks.

Also if Scarlets lose/Draw Ulster could go top of the table with a game in hand!

Jen - problem is Adriaanse, the new prop, is in the Currie Cup and will need to given a bit of a rest, Vallejos is in the Rugby Championship (but I heard is meant to be released early?), and Snyman, the other lock, had visa issues, and is apparently not up to the fitness required yet. I do wonder what has happened with Ball, I though he was going to be involved a fair bit as he seemed to be a decent lump of a lock. But maybe it is the lack of line options.

It is quite interesting to see so many comments about it being a strong Scarlets side, when you consider we have removed 5 Welsh Internationals from the starting XV (North, Knoyle, S Williams, Shingler and Owens). I guess it goes to show that our squad is coming along slowly, a bit more depth in the locks and props and we could be looking good.

Just seen this match is apparently on Sky Channel 226.

Kingshu - I can understand where you are coming from but

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Yup, I'm really looking forward to seeing the squad in around two months when our new signings are with us and up and running, then we'll be able to have even greater ability to switch our locks dependant on opposition and also have the ability to switch Manu to LH if needed, with Adriaanse and Lee covering TH. (we must be the only side in the league with more THs than LHs)

Yeah...about that.... Can you wait about 23 days before kicking on with that.

Unless you want to beat Clermont away in the mean time.

Yeah, we'll beat you all - the more the merrier! ohh wait

Scarlet - I think Ball is with us but is just 'acclimatising' with Llanelli as we have quite a few 2nd row options with Timani, Kelly and Earle all doing well.

BBC SPORT -"Jordan Williams comes in at wing, allowing Liam Williams to take over from North on the right wing. "

Classic quote from the BBC - err I think you'll find that you need a FB and only 2, not 3, wingers in the team - I also think they'll find that Jordan Williams will be FB not wing.

I have a couple of links for the game live, PM me if intrested.

Iaob

Which channel is 226?

Fenby just got a cracking try. Scarlets could get the win and TBP if they keep picking off tries like this. Manu still a liability though.

20 - 5 (Rhys P with 2 Convo's, a pen and a DG to his name!) to Scarlets.

49mins into the game.

20-12, Treviso really really coming back into this game now.

20 mins to go.

Cheers for the updates guys..!

I couldn't find that channel 226..???

It's Sky Italia, not available over here.

19-20 with 15 mins to go.

2 charge down tries for Treviso from just lazy Scarlets play. blinkin ridiculous.

Not good. But Treviso is a difficult team at home. They take no prisoners.

no but we've gifted them points when we had a 20-5 lead!

McGog in bin. 7 mins to go, still 1 point in it, Treviso with scrum right in front of posts.

79 min penalty to Treviso on halfway, it was good,

FT 22 - 20 to Treviso.

gutted.

great fight back from them though.

That's really poor from Scarlets after an early 17-5 lead. Same old cliches rearing their head and costing them the game. Alarm bells should be ringing when you consider you have Clermont up first in Europe.

Well done teviso, two welsh scalps so far this season

They were superb in the 2nd half view

Scarlets have never won out in Treviso, just gutted we threw it away when we had such a lead.

Loads of positives though, Rhys P was bang on form, best I've seen him play for yonks.

Good to hear, at least a losing Bonus Point on the road aint to shabby.

aye, Scarlets have picked up points in every game, which is no bad thing. Should have won this one though, got to work on our concentration. Scrum was a mix again. Either really rubbish or quite good.

Need to work on defending the maul though, we were v poor in that area.

rugbydreamer wrote:They were superb in the 2nd half view

Scarlets have never won out in Treviso, just gutted we threw it away when we had such a lead.

Loads of positives though, Rhys P was bang on form, best I've seen him play for yonks.

They won out there in 2010, the Heineken Cup away fixture. Perpignan lost out there though if I remember rightly.

Pro 12 mun Morg.

No comment from you from your favourite Davies, giving away a cheap try through a stupidly charged down box kick then I see?

I must have missed it, was it their third try? I was watching Ospreys/Munster. If Knoyle was taking the box kick it would have went straight into touch, so it's a no-win situation I'm afraid. And you neglected to mention you were specifically talking about the Pro12 RE, "Scarlets have never won out in Treviso."

No it was their first one.

Well it's a long season and every point counts, at this rate we should get into the top four, which would be fantastic.

Its a tough league this year...!

Said earleir that Treviso are no mugs but at 20-5 up did the Scarlets think they had won the game?

Guess we'll have to wait for the highlights on Scrum V tomorrow... Scarlets are a good side, but they have had a tough two weeks.

Bedford - nope, Treviso came out all guns blazing 2nd half, huge credit to them. Errors cost us though. Defensively we were v v good, only conceding the one try to pressure from them, their other two tries came from just such stupid stupid mistakes from us.

Two interceptions tries and a poor kick out by Preistland (not hitting touch) near the end lost the game cost the Scarlets, worrying coming up to the HC.

glamorganalun wrote:Two interceptions tries and a poor kick out by Preistland (not hitting touch) near the end lost the game cost the Scarlets, worrying coming up to the HC.

I thought both tries were as a result of charge downs/poor kicks?

Priest - they were two charge downs, one from a box kick and one from an attempted chip over in midfield.

Charge down is a form of interception, anyway who cares, it was simply poor play, once is a game is not great but understandable but twice is really bad. The Scarlets were in a deserved and strong position to throw away this game is frustrating as it could mean not getting to the play off''s, every point will count this year as there will be a lot of competition this year.

The Scarlets may be our best chance of progress in the HC, they have had a reality check I hope they can sort the issues out ASAP.

We won't progress in the HC glam, I'd be utterly amazed if we do. We'll be very lucky if we even drop down into the Amlin given our group

Agree with dreamer - if we were in the Blues group then we'd have a shout, but to have to play Leinster and Clermont twice just to get out of the group, and before we can build up any momentum (not to mention a tricky Exeter) and then more than likely meet one of them in the knockout at some point IF we'd get that far. It's dreaming.

Our best bet if the play-offs of the Rabo - but we really need to man up 1st for the cannier teams, and cut out the mistakes against the tricky teams such as Treviso, Burgh away and Ulster home/away.

I have to agree with both of you but after the season start it is really disappointing to throw away the game in Italy when being well ahead. The Ospreys lost there but they were chasing the game with one man down and the conditions were terrible, the Scarlets had perfect conditions for their style of rugby.

I hope the boys front up do man up to win the home games and who knows the scarlets have the best away record of the Welsh regions.

The game against the Ospreys I thought the back row were poor, I am not sure they were pushing in the scrum, the problem may be down to selection picking three 6's, the scarlets badly missing a 7 and a decent 8, was Mc Custer playing!

Let''s hope the scarlets learn from the last two games as they can cut anyone apart.

Edwards had another average-poor game in Italy. I would love to see Dan Thomas given a go. Don't really rate Turnbull or Edwards above average myself. McCusker was a quality player before a few injury set-backs. I would also love to see him regain that form.

only Alun mentioned this I think - if Priestland had managed to find touch with that last kick, than odds on scarlets would have won that game. Shocking mistake, you have to do the basics. Also you cannot let a 20-5 lead slip! Easterby has to sort them out

tatterd wrote:only Alun mentioned this I think - if Priestland had managed to find touch with that last kick, than odds on scarlets would have won that game. Shocking mistake, you have to do the basics. Also you cannot let a 20-5 lead slip! Easterby has to sort them out

Thanks for noting and agreeing my observation I agree with your comments. It seems Preistland has become a new S Jones for the Scarlets supporters many ignore he is poor at goal kicking (not S Jones), drop goals (I have never seen him get one), hit or miss tackling (I believe he missed the most tackles in Aust) and the last minute kicks last week and for Wales were poor and lost both games that should have been won.

On a positive note the Scarlets have great backs but need to bring on a decent 10, I prefer Aled Thomas.

I don't think Priestland has been playing badly, just poor kicking.

I know what you mean but kicking is pretty key to being a flyhalf both out of hand and at the posts.