CHANGE your captain; change your fortunes. Probably that is hugely oversimplifying things but what is certainly true is that Fraser McKenzie's first outing as Edinburgh club captain saw his side throw away an early lead but his leadership ensured they refused to capitulate and instead turned the game on its head again.
The crunch point came after 55 minutes when their Italian hosts had added an Angelo Esposito try to two earlier penalties from Ian McKinley and were about to go six points up with McKinley's conversion.
McKenzie gathered his side around him for the first time as club captain, and laid down the law: focus on the kick off, make sure they put Treviso under pressure and get something from that. Then move on; don't panic.
It worked. The ferocity of Edinburgh's chase caught Treviso by surprise, they knocked on and from the scrum the Scots were able to work Blair Kinghorn, their best attacking weapon, into the game down the blindside. He did the rest, laying on a score for Dougie Fife, the wing.
"I was thinking to myself: 'this is where we build character, this is where we change as a club’," McKenzie recalled. "We did exactly what we said, we got an early score back. That really settled us.
"I feel that our mindset then was that we were looking forward – looking forward to the next try and then the bonus point try, which I feel a bit unlucky not to get. I think that was an opportunity missed – that is a different mindset. Instead of trying to just see the game out we were looking to progress further."
He was modest about how important his role had been in creating the turnaround, but it was obvious, even from the sidelines, that he does enjoy the respect of the players around him and they do listen to him.
"It was good, the guys reacted really well," McKenzie admitted. "I have done it a few times in games and the guys always react well. They are a passionate bunch, a close-knit bunch but sometimes results have not always gone our way.
"The win does not mean that I am a good leader. Technically, it does not make a huge difference who was in charge, I am really just the link between the referee at the team and the person who tries to keep the team on-focus and on the game plan.
"There are a lot of players stepping up throughout the team, you look at the likes of Stuart McInally and Phil Burleigh, they are really stepping up.
"The team we have got, we just need that belief; that character. There will be ups and downs along the way but the majority of the time, we want to be coming out with good wins like this one. We need to be coming to places like this and winning regularly. There is no reason we can’t do that. This was a tick in the box that we needed."
For a long time it looked as though the game was going to follow the same pattern as the match they lost to the same opponents six weeks ago. They started well, Kinghorn doing the damage for Sam Hidalgo-Clyne to score, but struggled to push on to a winning position.
Momentum turned. Edinburgh found themselves increasingly under the cosh and conceding scores until they went behind – which is where the script changed. This time they did regroup, did go back on the offensive, did force mistakes from the opposition and did score.
The breakthrough was quickly followed by a repeat move, Hamish Watson – back from injury and back to his aggressive best – setting it up with a drive from a line out, Kinghorn again taking advantage and Fife again finishing it off.
The final period was mainly spent in Treviso territory, though there was still time for a late drama as Kinghorn showed the other side of his game with a try-saving tackle on Luca Sperandio, the wing, though it took an extended run of television replays to establish the Italian had been forced into touch a split second before grounding the ball.
"Over the whole of the game, apart from one defensive error for their score, we were defensively sound," McKenzie added. "Generally, we controlled the game quite well. The try we conceded could have turned out a lot worse for us, we reacted well to it. At the end we were still in the figh to stop them getting that [losing] bonus point."
The win puts them four-fifths of the way towards hitting a mid-season target they set themselves. After losing to Treviso at home, the aim was to win every game before they get a chance to take stock when the internationals are on. With one to go, they are on target.
Scorers:
Benetton Treviso: Try: Esposito (55). Con: McKinley. Pens: McKinley (34, 38)
Edinburgh: Tries: Hidalgo-Clyne (2), Fife (58, 73). Cons: Tovey 3. Pen: Tovey (64)
Scoring sequence (Benetton Treviso first): 0-7, 3-7, 6-7 (half time), 13-7, 13-14, 13-17, 13-24,
Benetton Treviso: J Hayward; A Esposito, I Brex, A Sgarbi (T Benvenuti, 69), L Sperandio; I McKinley, T Tebaldi (G Bronzini, 59); F Zani (C Traore, 64), L Bigi (T Baravalle, 2), S Ferrari (T Pasquali, 64), M Fuser (F Ruzza, 53), D Budd (C), F Minto (sin bin: 31-41, A Zanni, 59), A Steyn (S Negri, 48), R Barbrieri.
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Fife, J Johnstone (C Dean, 64), P Burleigh, J Harries (G Bryce, 58); J Tovey, S Hidalgo-Clyne (N Fowles, 56); D Marfo (M Rizzo, 65), S McInally (N Cochrane, 70), WP Nel (M McCallum, 78), F McKenzie (C), B Toolis (G Gilchrist, 56), L Crosbie (L Carmichael, 62), H Watson, C du Preez.
Referee: B Whitehouse (Wales)
Attendance: 3,000
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