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Two yellow cards cost Cheetahs

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Treviso on the attack

Two tries against 13 men propelled Treviso to a 27-21 win against the Cheetahs at Stadio Monigo on Saturday. SIMON BORCHARDT reports.

The Cheetahs, who had last played in the Pro14 on 2 December, were leading 16-8 after 54 minutes when hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld was sent to the sin bin for a breakdown infringement in the red zone. He was joined there seconds later by scrumhalf Shaun Venter, who intentionally knocked down a pass at the back of Treviso’s scrum.

While the Cheetahs won a morale-boosting free kick at the next set piece, Treviso soon made their numerical advantage count, with tries from replacement forwards Hame Faiva and Federico Ruzza giving them a 20-16 lead.

No sooner had the visitors been restored to 15 men than Faiva went over for his second try, from a lineout driving maul.

There was more drama to come, though. Oupa Mohoje scored his second try, in the 79th minute, and when the Cheetahs won a Treviso scrum, they launched one final attack.

It looked promising until Treviso forced a turnover just outside their 22, and the Cheetahs were lucky not to concede another try when right wing Luca Sperandio’s kick ahead bounced away from him in the deadball area.

The Cheetahs, who remain third in Conference A, will be bitterly disappointed with this result considering how well they started the game.

The Free Staters dominated possession in the first 15 minutes, and while they couldn’t get over the line, Fred Zeilinga slotted two penalty goals to give them some reward.

Zeilinga kicked a third penalty in the 31st minute to extend his side’s lead, but Treviso struck two minutes before the break when Marty Banks put left wing Monty Ioane (the nephew of Digby) away to make it 9-5.

Banks’ conversion came off the upright, but the former Hurricanes and Highlanders flyhalf made no mistake with a penalty early in the second half that reduced the deficit to one.

The Cheetahs responded with a somewhat fortuitous try. Barry’s clearance kick was touched by a Treviso player and collected 20m upfield by Hugo Reniel. A couple of phases later, Mohoje handed off a defender and went over to briefly silence the small crowd.

But then came the game-changing yellow cards and a Treviso surge resulted in a sixth win for the Italian club from 13 matches.

Treviso – Tries: Monty Ioane, Hame Faiva (2), Federico Ruzza. Conversions: Marty Banks (2). Penalty: Banks.
Cheetahs – Try: Oupa Mohoje. Conversion: Fred Zeilinga. Penalties: Zeilinga (3).

Treviso – 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Luca Sperandio, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Marty Banks, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Marco Barbini , 7 Abraham Steyn, 6 Whetu Douglas, 5 Dean Budd (c), 4 Irné Herbst, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Nicola Quaglio.
Subs: 16 Hame Faiva, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Cherif Traore, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Marco Fuser, 21 Sebastian Negri, 22 Edoardo Gori, 23 Ian McKinley.

Cheetahs – 15 Craig Barry, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Francois Venter (c), 12 Nico Lee, 11 Makazola Mapimpi, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Uzair Cassiem, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Hugo Reniel, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (c), 1 Charles Marais
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Subs: 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Rynier Bernardo, 20 Junior Pokomela, 21 Zee Mkhabela, 22 Niel Marais, 23 AJ Coertzen.

Photo: @Federugby/Twitter