Guinness PRO12: Edinburgh beat Treviso 28-13 to go joint-second
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 11/01/16 9:58am
Edinburgh moved joint-second in the Guinness PRO12 table with an uninspiring 28-13 win which leaves Treviso rooted to the bottom of the standings and without a win away from home for 13 months.
After a blistering opening quarter of an hour that saw Edinburgh leading 10-0 thanks to a try from Damien Hoyland and the conversion and a penalty from Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, the first half fell away.
Two penalties from James Ambrosini kept Treviso in it and Edinburgh went in at half-time leading only 10-6. From the restart a penalty from Hidalgo-Clyne and a penalty try converted by the Scotland international put Edinburgh into a 23-6 lead.
However they were unable to build on that or deal with the Treviso driven line-out which produced a try for Robert Barbieri and came very close to producing a second touch-down.
A second try from man-of-the-match Hoyland in the final act saw Edinburgh home and move level on points Scarlets, who play Connacht on Sunday.
On a damp Edinburgh evening Treviso, under new coach Marius Goosen, kicked off looking for their first away win since February of last year.
Edinburgh immediately went into attacking mode and, five minutes in, left winger Hoyland thought he had scored but referee Gary Conway disagreed.
However Hoyland's joy was only delayed for seven minutes before he legitimately touched down, from a clever assist by Cornell Du Preez.
Scrum-half Hidalgo-Clyne, who had opened Edinburgh's scoring between Hoyland's efforts with a penalty, kicked the conversion from touch to give his side an early 10-0 lead.
With the penalty count being evened up, two successes by fly-half Ambrosini saw Edinburgh's take a narrow 10-6 lead into the break.
Edinburgh extended their lead early in the second half with two Hidalgo-Clyne penalties as Treviso's discipline started to slip.
In the 59th minute the referee's patience broke and he awarded a penalty try converted by Hidalgo-Clyne to put Edinburgh into a 23-6 lead.
Treviso had already shown their proficiency in the driven line-out and from they produced a try for flanker Barbieri, converted by Ambrosini.
In a rousing last two minutes Edinburgh scored a third try as Treviso went down to 13-men with both Tom Palmer and Ornel Gega sin-binned.