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The Dragons came crashing back down to earth as Benetton ruthlessly dismantled the Welsh region in a crushing 74-21 defeat.
Filo Tiatia’s side have been in good form, winning three out of their last four matches ahead of the trip to Treviso, but this was a step too far for the Welsh club. The Dragons must beat Newcastle Red Bulls at Rodney Parade next Friday to qualify for the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup.
This was men against boys for the full 80 minutes as the Dragons got blown away as they conceded 11 tries and 74 points against an outstanding Benetton side.
Alessandro Izekor, Onisi Ratave, Malakai Fekitoa, Paolo Odogwu (twice), Jacob Umaga (twice), Louis Lynagh (twice) and Leonardo Marin scored Benetton’s tries.
Player of the match Umaga also contributed 19 points from the kicking tee to go with his brace of tries.
All the Dragons could muster were three tries from Oli Burrows, Rio Dyer and Shane Lewis-Hughes, while Tinus de Beer and Jac Lloyd kicked six points between them.
Umaga opened the scoring for the hosts but it was very clear from early on that Fijian wing Ratave was the danger man.
He was the architect of Benetton’s first try with a powerful surge up-field which resulted in Fekitoa putting Izekor over for a try which Umaga converted.
The Dragons could not get their hands on the ball and they had no answer to the home side’s power game.
After Umaga had drilled a penalty into the corner the Welsh club got shoved backwards at a rate of knots at the driving lineout which laid the platform for Ratave to power over the line.
To their credit the Dragons hit back when in-form hooker Burrows smashed his way over the line for a try from short-range which de Beer converted.
But any hopes of a comeback were short-lived as Ratave charged down the touchline before getting brought down in the Dragons 22.
After going through the phases former All Blacks centre Fekitoa scored out wide.
Ratave was on fire as he shoved four Dragons defenders out of the way as he went from deep inside his own half into the Welsh club’s 22. The Fijian star offloaded to Matt Gallagher who offloaded to Odogwu for the bonus-point try.
Things got worse before half-time with Umaga scoring their fifth after some scintillating interplay between backs and forwards to give the hosts a 34-7 lead at the interval.
Benetton started the second half in the same manner they had finished the first with the bit between their teeth.
The Italian club were dominating the physical stakes and after working their way into the Dragons 22 scrum-half Andy Uren found Lynagh unmarked.
Uren proceeded to throw a long pass which beat three defenders to find an unmarked Lynagh for the try.
Benetton claimed their seventh try soon after with a cross-kick from Umaga finding Odogwu out wide who offloaded to Fekitoa.
The powerful centre had the presence of mind to pass back in field for Odoguw to touch down.
The Dragons did claim a consolation try when an outrageous out-of-the-back-door offload found Dyer unmarked who ran in unopposed from 40 metres out.
But Benetton hit straight back when Umaga intercepted Jac Lloyd’s pass to run in from the halfway line.
Lynagh claimed his second and Benetton’s ninth try after another strong break from Ratave put the former Harlequins wing over.
Marin hit a strong angle to claim the home side’s 10th try before Lewis-Hughes ran in unopposed from 35 metres out for a consolation score for the visitors.
But Benetton rubbed further salt into the Dragons’ wounds as Marin touched down for the Italian side’s 11th try.
Benetton: Gallagher; Lynagh, Odogwu, Fekitoa, Ratave; Umaga, Uren (capt); Spagnolo, Gasperini, Ferrari, N Cannone, Ruzza, Izekor, Zuliani, L Cannone. Replacements: Bernasconi, Chaparro, Zilocchi, Scrafton, Snyman, Lamaro, Garbisi, Marin.
Dragons: Anderson; E Rosser, Richards, Westwood, Dyer; de Beer, R Williams (capt); Martinez, Burrows, Dlamini, Douglas, Screech, Woodman, Beddall, Lewis-Hughes. Replacements: Coghlan, Morris, Hunt, Langton-Cryer, Young, M Lloyd, J Lloyd, Owen.
Referee: Benoit Rousselet (Fra)
Assistants: Pierre Bru (Fra), Thomas Chereque (Fra)
TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)
