The Ospreys had little trouble in dispatching Treviso on Saturday, claiming a 41-10 Pro12 victory at Liberty Stadium.
Ashley Beck and Paul James both crossed the whitewash in the first half, with fly-half Dan Biggar kicking 10 points.
Further converted scores followed in the second period from Beck, Joe Bearman and Tom Isaacs as the hosts moved back into the top-four.
Treviso's response came through a converted Ludovico Nitoglia try and a Kris Burton three-pointer.
It was the hosts that took the lead through a Biggar penalty before Burton converted one of his own to level matters.
The Ospreys, though, were playing with far more intent and creativity and deservedly opened their try-scoring account when good work from Hanno Dirksen sent Beck clear.
Biggar kicked the conversion and then added another three-pointer as the hosts held a 13-3 advantage after 22 minutes.
Treviso very rarely threatened the Welsh region's 22 in the first period and their slackness was capitalised on by Adam Jones, who's rare break and off-load allowed James to score.
The hosts led 20-3 at the interval and any thought of a fightback from the visitors was effectively ended when Beck touched down, Biggar converting.
However, the Italian team suddenly sprung into life. The impressive Edoardo Gori made a searing break and the move was well finished off by Nitoglia. Alberto di Bernado added the extras, but their resurgence was halted when Tommaso Benvenuti was sin-binned and from the resulting scrum, Bearman went over.
Isaacs added a fifth try before di Bernardo was yellow carded late on for Treviso.
The scorers:
For Ospreys:
Tries: Beck 2, James, Bearman, Isaacs
Cons: Biggar 5
Pens: Biggar 2
For Treviso:
Try: Nitoglia
Con: Burton
Pen: Burton
Yellow cards: Benvenuti, Di Bernardo
Ospreys 15 Richard Fussell, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Andrew Bishop, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Joe Bearman, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 James King, 20 Tom Smith, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Matthew Morgan, 23 Tom Isaacs.
Treviso: 15 Kristopher Burton, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Tommaso Iannone, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Alberto Di Bernardo, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Corniel Van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello (c), 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Enrico Ceccato, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 19 Valerio Bernaḅ, 20 Gonzalo Padṛ, 21 Marco Filippucci, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Luke McLean.
Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Comments
makemehappy says...
@pantreac - there has actually been some action against Barnes, as he's been axed from the elite panel. I do think there should be more action taken against incompetence. Sadly we have refs who want to be the star of the show, enforcing rules that neither the players nor the public like. Now that is a problem that urgently needs to be addressed!
Posted 18:39 01st April 2012
makemehappy says...
The Ospreys actually looked reasonably convincing - even Bishop wasn't awful!
Can't believe the video ref didn't know the rules for the James try - clear knock on, given it left his hand, was then only in contact with the Treviso player (which considering it was going forward means its a knock on), before regathering it! Didn't affect teh outcome at least.
Rolland is quick with the red card, but he was painfully slow bringing out the yellow in this game.
Posted 17:01 01st April 2012
pantreac says...
Lets be honest James's 'score' just wasn't. It is not the first time this season that Mr Rolland has made an 'in house' error when awarding a try that was obviously not a try. Two tries awarded to the Dragons earlier in the season come to mind. Is there in fact any check on these supposed impartial adjudicators? If they are found to have incorrectly awarded a try are they disciplined? The same as Mr Barnes awarding a penalty against Ferris in the Irish/Welsh match when the disciplinery panel found, 'no penalty should have been awarded. Wales would not have won that match and indeed not won the triple crown either. What action was taken against Mr Barnes, if any?
Posted 09:07 01st April 2012
jontheref says...
Alain Rolland had a warm welcome to Swansea last night!
Considering the RWC was more than 4 months ago, the crowd have long memories!
I was at his first game in Wales following the RWC, at Scarlets in December, and the Scarlets crowd,( about the same size just under 8,000) could notmatch the fervour of the Ospreys crowd in showing their dislike of Rolland R at.
To be fair to him, he only contreversial in hat he didn't do.
he allowed Ospreys players to be tackled in the air twice, and failed to give a yellow card and pen try just before the break.
He finally got the yellow card out, for an innocuous knock on.
Almost as if he was running out of time to give one!
The TMO, Tony Rowlands continues to bemuse me, Paul James try certainly was lost onto t a Treviso player, back to him for any, if any, marginal grounding.
Did not affect the result, as O's were one more than the 4 tries required for the bonus point.
Mr Rowlands, seems to have a habit of making the wrong decision as TMO, getting two wrong at Dragons v Blues a few weeks ago, which effectively decided the game!
Alain Rolland, move over, Tony Rowland wants your crown as game decider!
Power to the TMO?
Not in this way!
Posted 08:21 01st April 2012