A golden opportunity to pick up a third consecutive win on the road, and to kill off a five-match losing streak at the Stadio Monigo, was allowed to slip through Edinburgh’s fingers when the capital outfit failed to take advantage of their opponents playing 70 minutes with 14 men or less.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” said head coach Mike Blair. “We knew this was going to be a really tough game with the team that they picked. Benetton were excellent and managed the game really well after the red card. They were really smart. But I said to the players at half-time that the game was still in our hands.
“We’ve seen it before, though, with red cards and how it can really galvanise a team. It brings emotion into it and gives them that backs-to-the-wall type of mentality. But we’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to see that as an opportunity. I think we waited and thought that [the red card] was going to be the thing that won us the game.
“But that wasn’t the case. It’s your physicality, your relentless nature of attack, persistence in defence, your smarts – that’s what wins you games. Collectively, we were just off it.”
“This period is an opportunity for the club,” he added in an attempt to hit a more positive tone. “We were just off it in a couple of areas and that’s something we need to fix moving forward to next week.”
After taking a second minute lead through a Charlie Savala penalty, Edinburgh’s position became even more promising when Benetton winger Matteo Minozzi raised his boot as he collected a high ball in the air and caught Wes Goosen in the face, resulting in a red card just 10 minutes into his debut for the club.
But this decisive moment proved to be a catalyst for the home team rather than the visitors, with Benetton stand-off Tomas Albornoz first kicking his team to within striking distance, and then sending a long pass out for Marcus Watson to scurry over on the right.
Benetton continued to boss the match and after a sequence of penalties were conceded by the bedraggled Scots near their own line, Goosen saw yellow for offside, and Pyrgos was lucky not to receive the same sanction and a penalty try less than two minutes later for a deliberate knock-on on his own line.
The hosts kept pushing the accelerator, and got their reward when Watson punched up the middle off scrum ball before scrum-half Dewaldt Duvenage sent a long pass back towards the right wing where Sebastian Negri was lurking unmarked to finish off to make it 10-3.
The visitors started the second 40 minutes in fine fashion with Savala delaying his pass perfectly to send Immelman over for their opening try of the contest, and Savala converted.
However, a sloppy knock-on from Immelman and a dominant home scrum allowed Benetton to reclaim the initiative with yet another penalty kicked to the corner, from which Lorenzo Cannone scrambled over for home try number three.
With the hosts reduced to 13 men when Federico Ruzza was sin-binned as a team punishment for persistent infringements, Edinburgh battled their way back to scoreboard parity when Nick Haining waded through three tackles then released Immelman on the right for his second.
But Benetton pulled away again with another forceful passage of play which culminated in Duvenage sending an exquisite chip into the in-goal area for Rhyno Smith to race onto and score, which secured both the win and the four-try bonus-point.
Teams
Benetton R Smith; M Watson (T Menoncello 58), I Brex, M Zanon, M, Minozzi; T Albornoz (J Umaga 54), D Duvenage (A Garbisi 78),; N Tetaz-Chapparo (I Nemer 49, S Ferrari 71), G Lucchesi ( G Nicotera 49), S Ferrari (T Pasquali, 40), (S Scrafton 49, G Lucchesi 63), F Ruzza, S Negri (N Cannone 61), M Zuliani (G Pettinelli 61), L Cannone.
Edinburgh H Immelman; D Hoyland, M Currie (C Dean 65), J Lang, W Goosen (C Dean 13-23); C Savala, H Pyrgos (B Vellacott 55); B Venter (J Jack, 77), S McInally (P Harrison 71), A Williams (L Atalifo 55), M Sykes, J Hodgson (G Young 69), M Haining, L Crosbie, B Muncaster (C Boyle 58).
