Rugby, Benetton’s run in the Challenge Cup comes to an end: Gloucester wins 40-23

Benetton Treviso played on par for a long time and in some cases better than Gloucester, but surrendered to the home team in the semi-final match (23-40) and must say goodbye to the Challenge Cup. History can wait. It had also happened a year ago, but that time Toulon had bullied the green and whites: instead today at the Kingsholm Stadium the Venetians gave the impression to some that they had the potential to win the match, but were betrayed by several errors in the transmission of the ‘oval and were too passive on the meeting points. Amashukeli, the unfortunate Georgian referee who 2 years ago had given 2 red cards to as many Italians in the Six Nations match against Ireland, once again did not seem coherent in his management of the game: the impression is that he allowed the players a lot hosts, however, he was inflexible towards the Treviso team. The success of the English team is however deserved: in the final they will meet the South African Sharks, who got the better of the French team of Clermont Ferrand.

Lucchesi’s brace isn’t enough

Five tries to three for Gloucester, impeccable in defense and cynical in counterattacking. Of the 3 Italian scores (a brace by hooker Lucchesi) it is worth remembering the – exciting – one by Smith at the end of the first half, when the green and white scrum blew the oval following an opponent’s introduction into their own 22, started forward with a beautiful Halafihi’s run supported by Lamaro, then Albornoz and Negri, then a long pass to Ratave who unmarked the fullback. A masterpiece that brought Marco Bortolami’s boys back down (11-15) at the end of the first half. In the second half, the Venetians attacked and the English scored. Now Benetton is focusing on the final phase of the Union Rugby Championship, where they are aiming to enter the quarterfinals.

Gloucester- Benetton 40-23 (15-11)
Markings: 5′ meta Hathaway, 15′ p. Albornoz, 19′ p. Hastings, 23′ p. Albornoz, 28′ meta Blake tr. Hastings, 40′ meta Smith; 48′ p. Hastings, 54′ meta Lucchesi, 58′ meta Hastings tr. Hastings, 61′ meta Clarke tr. Hastings, 66′ meta Lucchesi tr. Albornoz, 69′ p. Englefield, 78′ meta Thorley.

Gloucester: 15 Josh Hathaway, 14. Jonny May, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 Caolan Englefield (70′ Stephen Varney), 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow (C), 6 Ruan Ackermann, 5 Freddie Thomas (55′ Albert Tuisue), 4 Freddie Clarke, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev (55′ Ciaran Knight), 2 Seb Blake (44′ Santi Socino), 1 Mayco Vivas (44′ Jamal Ford-Robinson).

Benetton Treviso: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Ignacio Brex, 11 Onisi Ratave, 10 Tomas Albornoz (65′ Leonardo Marin), 9 Alessandro Garbisi (48′ Andy Uren), 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (C ), 6 Sebastian Negri (48′ Alessandro Izekor), 5 Eli Snyman (60′ Edoardo Iachizzi), 4 Scott Scrafton (40′ Niccolò Cannone), 3 Simone Ferrari (48′ Giosue Zilocchi), 2 Giacomo Nicotera (44′ Gianmarco Lucchesi ), 1 Thomas Gallo (60′ Mirco Spagnolo)

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).