Benetton Treviso (16) 24
Tries: Burton, Botes Con:Botes Pens: Botes 4
Connacht (10) 17
Tries: Flavin, Ta'auso Cons: Keatley 2 Pen: Keatley

Niva Ta'auso attempts to break through the Benetton Treviso defence

Benetton Treviso moved up two places to sixth in the Magners League table after a win over Connacht which was inspired by some good kicking by Tobias Botes.

Adrian Flavin scored a try after just four minutes, Ian Keatley converting, but Botes replied with two penalties and converted Kristopher Burton's try.

Botes and Keatley traded penalties before half-time but Ludovico Nitoglia scored a try to extend Treviso's lead.

Keatley converted Niva Ta'auso's try but a Botes penalty sealed the points.

Connacht picked up a bonus point but drop one place to 10th.

It had looked promising for the Irish province early on with Ray Ofisa offloading to Adrian Flavin, who scored under the posts after a well-worked line-out.

Ian Keatley kicked the conversion for a 7-0 lead before Botes scored a penalty after Jamie Hagan was penalised at a scrum inside the Connacht half.

The South African added another three points with a quarter of an hour gone when the referee penalised Flavin for hands in the ruck.

Treviso scored their first try after 24 minutes from Burton which Botes converted.

Botes then put Treviso nine points ahead with a penalty after Connacht were caught offside on their own five-metre line.

Keatley's penalty brought Connacht within six points of the home side just before the break.

Treviso responded with Ludovico Nitoglia breaking away to go over in the corner to extend the hosts' advantage to 21-10.

The move looked to have paid off when Fionn Carr beat three tackles to off load to Murphy who found Niva Ta'auso on the left wing to score under the posts.

Keatley's conversion closed the gap to four points and Connacht looked to push home for the try that would give them only their third win of the league campaign.

But a late penalty from Botes sealed the win for Treviso.

Benetton Treviso: B Williams; L Nitoglia, T Benvenuti, G Garcia, J Maddock; K Burton, T Botes; I Rouyet, L Ghiraldini, P Di Santo, A Pavanello (capt), C Van Zyl, B Vermaak R Barbieri, A Zanni.

Replacements: F Sbaraglini for Ghiraldini (50), M Muccignat for Di Santo (50), L Cittadini for Rouyet (50), E Pavanello for A Pavanello (77), A Sgarbi for Garcia (60), S Picone for Vermaak (60)

Not used: M Filippucci, F Semenzato.

Connacht: G Duffy; D Fanning, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, C Willis; B Wilkinson A Flavin, J Hagan, M Swift, M McCarthy, J O'Connor, R Ofisa, J Muldoon.

Replacements: D Murphy for Willis (57), R Loughney for Wilkinson (63), B Fa'amausili for Hagan (45), B Upton for Taylor (52), E Taylor for Ofisa (25), M Nikora for Keatley (65).

Not used: F Murphy, T Nathan

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