TREVISO
Come on Leoni, give us the first victory of the season in Monigo. It seems incredible: we are already at Easter but Benetton Rugby has yet to violate its temple. And then strength and courage, today we can straighten out, at least partially, the worst season ever. Competition and opponent are also propitious, we are in the Challenge Cup against, after the Stade Français, another French, Agen, which is very last in the Top 14 with 0-20 and 2 points. And that in Challenge they have lost their last 9 games, while Benetton have prevailed in 9 of their last 11 home matches. The first challenge of this season, as everyone will remember, jumped on December 19 for Covid in the green-and-white home: no recovery, it was not expected, lost at table 0-28.
Then, however, the complicated regulation of the Challenge offered our players the chance to advance to the Cup with a sort of play-off on friendly grass: Benetton passed among the best 16 teams, exactly seventh, qualifying with 5 points. And the chance is really greedy, the French are clearly the weakest of the lot and not beating them, even with the risks that are always there on the pitch, would be a heresy.
«Against the French teams we must always expect a physical match – explains Monty Ioane, on returning from the national team – they have very strong forwards and we will have to try to find their defense with our backs. We have good individuals, but we have to work as a group and equalize the battle with our forwards ». In the history of the Challenge Cup, Benetton and Agen, a regular in the competition, given that today’s race will be no. 100, they faced each other on three occasions. Twice in the 2018-2019 edition, with one victory each, the green-and-white one on 12 January 2019 between the friendly walls, overcoming the transalpines 38-24. While on 19 October 2018 the French had won at home with a score of 20-19. The last precedent is the aforementioned 0-28. Regarding the XV chosen by coach Crowley, as expected some Azzurri will return: in addition to Ioane there are also Garbisi, Negri, Riccioni, Lamaro, Ruzza. A line-up that Crowley certainly would have liked to have seen more often this year but, for the well-known and various reasons, it almost never happened. For Angelo Esposito it will be a match in a red circle, it will be his 100th presence with Treviso, 50 instead are those for Dewaldt Duvenage. One more reason to celebrate.
WELCOME Tommaso Benvenuti was banned for three weeks for a foul committed in the game against the Glasgow Warriors on 27 March. Today he will serve the first game, the others between Challenge (if there is one) and Rainbow Cup.
YOU PLAY AT: Treviso, Monigo stadium, 4 pm
BENETTON Hayward; Esposito, Brex, Zanon, Ioane; Garbisi, Duvenage; Favretto, Lamaro, Negri; Ruzza, Herbst; Riccioni, Baravalle, Gallo. A disp. Lucchesi, Quaglio, Nemer, Cannone, Zuliani, Petrozzi, Allan, Padovani. All. Crowley
AGENT Verdu; Tolot, Bunin, Vaka, Taulagi; Reid, Cottin; Hayes, Jegerlhener, Briatte; Mereaux, Zaffa Tarazona; Desmaison, Zarantonello, Vanai. A disp. Martinez, Tetrashvili, Falatea, Vernet, Phillips, Rokoduru, Abadie, Puletua. All. Guiuard. ARBITRO: Ridley (England) MEDIA Live on Sky Sport Arena