Leinster survive early setbacks

Benetton Treviso 9, Leinster 25

Both Gloucester and Munster struggled for a good 60 minutes in the picturesque Italian town last year before bounding free for victory and on Saturday Leinster went through the same process.

In the first 12 minutes the home side should have crossed the line twice. The first Treviso foray was inspired by their excellent centre Marius Goosen, who popped up in the move on two separate occasions before releasing the onrushing hooker Ongaro for the line. He was halted by aggressive Leinster defence and, with the home side taking some bad options at the breakdown, the danger passed.

A few minutes later with Goosen kicking two penalties in the interim the Italians engineered an overlap on the Leinster right, but when full-back Brendan Williams attempted to release Stuart Legg on his left, his pass was deliberately knocked on by Shane Horgan's right-hand. The penalty was awarded and perhaps Horgan should have visited the bin, but he didn't and Leinster came out of that period of the game only 6-0 down.

"I think it was a worrying start for people who feel that Treviso are not a good side," said Declan Kidney of the game's opening period. "For me personally, and the players as well, after 20 minutes we didn't show any panic when we were 6-0 down because we'd done our homework and we knew we were up against a very good side."

By the 24th minute, and through no huge creativity of their own, Leinster were level at 6-6 thanks to two well-taken penalties from David Holwell after some silly Italian indiscretions and, before the break, they got the try that swayed the game.

Following another Italian infringement, with a clearly offside Legg chasing a clearance from out-half Franco Smith, Leinster were awarded a penalty which was duly kicked to the corner. O'Kelly grabbed the line-out, his pack gathered round and Shane Byrne flopped over the line. But they failed to truly build on that. Denis Hickie, switched to full-back at the 11th hour after Girvan Dempsey was ruled out through illness, kicked far too much ball, while the normally fluid midfield partnership of Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy was lacklustre in the extreme. Up-front, the pack put in an enormous amount of effort, particularly when Malcolm O'Kelly was sent to the sin-bin, but the line-out struggled badly. Two late tries followed through Horgan and a neat Hickie-O'Driscoll double act.

BENETTON TREVISO: B Williams; D Dallan, W Pozzebon, M Goosen, S Legg; F Smith, A Troncon; G Faliva, F Ongaro, S Constanzo, G Klerck, M Wentzel, E Pavanello, S Orlando, S Parisse. Replacements: S Palmer for Parisse, 30mins; Dal Maso for Orlando, 60mins; H Mazino for Costanzo, 61mins; Tomasso for Goosen, 73mins; A Gritti for Pavenello, 73mins; F Sbaraglini for Ongaro, 73mins; D Carpente for Legg, 76mins.

LEINSTER: D Hickie; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, G Brown; D Holwell, B O'Meara; R Corrigan), S Byrne, E Byrne, M O'Kelly, L Cullen, A McCullen, S Jennings, V Costello. Replacements: E Miller for McCullen, 69mins; B Gissing for O'Kelly, 81mins.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)