Bonus win for Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons moved up to seventh in the Magners League with a 33-10 victory over Treviso at Rodney Parade.
Last Updated: 03/04/11 5:17pm
Newport Gwent Dragons moved up to seventh in the Magners League with a 33-10 victory over Treviso at Rodney Parade.
Adam Hughes, Aled Brew and Ashley Smith crossed in the first half as the hosts took a 19-3 lead.
Fly-half Kristopher Burton got a try back for the Italians but further tries from Brew and Will Harries sealed the bonus-point win.
Centre Hughes went over for his ninth try of the season when the ball ran loose on the left as Tom Riley and full-back Martyn Thomas pressurised the defence.
From there, Hughes hacked on to the line and beat defender Gonzalo Garola to the ball.
Centre Smith came on when Thomas, who has only been back since January 26 from a nine-month leg injury absence, limped off with another leg problem.
Smith, back after a month out with a shoulder injury, immediately had an impact as he made one try and scored another to give the Dragons a 19-3 advantage at the break.
Firstly, faced with being put into touch on the right while inside the Treviso 22, he cross-kicked to the middle of the field with the outside of his boot to put wing Brew over.
And when a hole appeared in the Treviso defence three minutes from the interval, number eight Toby Faletau went through to set his team-mate up for a run under the posts.
Outside-half Burton put Treviso on the board in injury time with a penalty from 25 metres but it was still a long way back for the Italians.
However, they came out fighting at the start of the second half and were rewarded when Burton took a pass from a ruck and went through Wayne Evans and Jason Tovey from five metres out to score near the posts, making his conversion simple.
Burton could have reduced the arrears further but a penalty on 49 minutes hit a post.
Lucky
And Treviso captain Antonio Pavanello could count himself lucky to still be on the pitch five minutes later when he appeared to punch Dragons replacement back rower Gavin Thomas but got away with a warning.
Bnd the Italians hopes of an unlikely victory were soon extinguished as Smith and Tovey combined to send Brew in for the bonus-point try, and moments later Tovey's chip over the defence was caught by wing Harries to sprint 40 metres unopposed.
Treviso finished the game with 13 men after Gonzalo Padro was sin-binned for pushing Evans to the floor, and prop Diego Vidal was yellow-carded for dangerous play.
