Treviso 22-25 Ospreys
Ospreys ended their try drought to secure their first win of the Pro12 season with victory over Benetton Treviso.
Steve Tandy's side led at the break through tries from Dan Evans and Ben John with James Ambrosini crossing for Treviso.
Sam Davies scored a third try in the second half and also kicked 10 points.
Jayden Hayward and Luca Bigi's late tries secured a bonus point for Treviso but Ospreys held on.
Ospreys had failed to scored a try in their opening three games of the season, all of which they had lost.
Fiji centre Josh Matavesi started for Ospreys after returning from World Cup duty with Italy flanker Alessandro Zanni back to captain Treviso.
Hayward's penalty gave the home side an early lead at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo.
Davies missed two penalty attempts for Ospreys before Evans scored the game's opening try only minutes after replacing Hanno Dirksen.
Davies missed the conversion and four minutes later Treviso restored their lead through Ambrosini's try, which Hayward failed to convert.
Ospreys took the lead when centre John crossed for their second try, which Davies converted with his first successful kick of the game.
Hayward missed a penalty which would have restored Treviso's lead but Ospreys went in at the break leading 12-8.
Davies extended Ospreys' lead with his first successful penalty and although he failed with a fourth attempt he made amends with his side's fourth try of the game.
The 22-year-old converted his own try before Treviso responded through Hayward's converted try.
Davies penalty sealed made it 25-15 before Hayward missed a penalty but Treviso had the last word with Bigi's stoppage time try converted by Hayward to secure a losing bonus point.
Munster 35-27 Cardiff Blues
Munster moved to the top of the Pro12 by beating Cardiff Blues to make it four wins our of four this season.
Tries from Tavis Knoyle and Richard Smith gave the Blues a 17-14 interval lead, sandwiching converted scores from Munster's Mike Sherry and Keatley.
Blues' Tom Isaacs and Sherry swapped tries in the third quarter.
Munster outscored the visitors 14-3 over the closing 20 minutes with the Blues ending the game without the sin-binned Jevon Groves.
The strong finish by the hosts denied the visitors only their second away victory in the Pro12 since last September.
Fly-half Rhys Patchell opened the scoring with a penalty from inside the 22 for the Blues. Their first try soon followed when Garyn Smith passed inside to Patchell and scrum-half Knoyle was up in support to finish under the posts. Patchell's conversion made it 10-0.
Munster hit back with a try of their own inside four minutes. With space out wide, Francis Saili's superb looping pass took three out defenders and sent hooker Sherry over in the left corner.
Keatley added the extras and as Munster remained on the front foot, the fly-half took advantage of Gavin Evans' missed tackle to glide in behind the posts.
However, in the final play of the first half, the Blues profited from some lacklustre Munster defending to work winger Richard Smith over out wide on the left, with Patchell converting with aplomb from the touchline.
Munster's poor tackling was again exposed when Sherry and Jack O'Donoghue failed to stop Isaacs from five metres out. Patchell converted the centre's 43rd-minute try to make it 24-14.
The introduction of Tomas O'Leary following his three-year spell with London Irish, coupled with a textbook maul try from Sherry, saw Munster go up a gear.
They drove the Blues off their own scrum five metres out, and replacement flanker Coghlan dived on the loose ball for his first Pro12 try which Keatley converted.
A Patchell three-pointer closed the gap to 28-27, but Saili's deft pass unlocked the Blues defence out wide for the increasingly influential Conway to go over.
Groves was binned for a no-arms tackle in the build-up, and Keatley's touchline conversion took a deserved bonus point away from the luckless Blues.
No comments:
Post a Comment