Edinburgh see off Treviso
Edinburgh secured a third straight Magners League home victory with a 21-9 victory over Benetton Treviso at Murrayfield.
Last Updated: 05/11/10 9:35pm
Edinburgh secured a third straight Magners League home victory with a 21-9 victory over Benetton Treviso at Murrayfield.
Netani Talei scored a first-half try and Kyle Traynor touched down after the interval for Edinburgh, while David Blair added three penalties and one conversion.
Tobias Botes kicked three penalties for Treviso - who have made a bright start to life in the Magners League - but this was a relatively straightforward win in wet conditions for the hosts.
Edinburgh - boosted by the presence of six members of Scotland's Test squad - were forced into two late changes to their line-up with Scott Newlands replacing the ill Alan MacDonald at flanker and Lee Jones coming in for wing Tim Visser, who was injured in the warm-up.
After Botes cancelled out Blair's early penalty, the visitors camped in the hosts' half, spreading the ball wide only for the wet conditions to contribute to numerous mistakes in contact and with the ball in hand.
Sliced through
Botes added another penalty after 28 minutes, but Edinburgh responded and John Houston sliced through the visitors' defence with a 40-metre run before the ball was recycled and Talei shrugged off two challenges to score.
Blair converted to hand the hosts a four-point interval lead.
Botes kicked his third successful penalty but, after Blair missed the chance to respond when his kick drifted wide, Edinburgh crossed for a second try after 49 minutes.
Jones got behind the visitors with a kick and chase before a half-break from Mark Robertson sucked in the defence and allowed Traynor to sneak around the resulting ruck to touch down.
Blair missed the conversion but added a penalty from in front of the posts after Botes' knock-on had allowed Edinburgh to apply some pressure.
The hosts' lead became 12 points when Blair kicked his third penalty of the evening from the visitors' 10-metre line with 10 minutes remaining, and the Edinburgh defence stood firm to secure a fourth win of the season.