Benetton destroy Glasgow, Lions out of play-off race

SATURDAY WRAP: Glasgow missed the chance to move back into second place in the United Rugby Championship following a 7-33 defeat to Benetton at Stadio Monigo.

Already guaranteed a home play-off tie, the Warriors saw Bulls move above them after beating Cardiff earlier in the day and they remain four points behind the South Africans with one game of the regular season left after a second successive loss.

Tries from Paolo Odogwu, Siua Maile and Rhyno Smith, with Jacob Umaga converting two of them, saw Benetton take a 19-0 lead into the break.

Tommaso Menoncello and Umaga added further scores in the second half, the latter successful from the tee on each occasion, to pile on the misery for Glasgow.

But Huw Jones celebrated his first call-up for the British and Irish Lions this week with a try, George Horne adding the extras, to get Glasgow on the board.

Benetton boosted their play-off prospects ahead of a trip to Munster next week, while Glasgow look likely to finish outside the top two given they play their final league game at leaders Leinster, while Bulls host bottom-of-the-table Dragons.

That result also ended the Lions’ hopes of reaching the last eight.

Benetton are now level on points (46) with Munster and Cardiff in positions sixth to eighth.

The Lions have 35 points and they won’t be able to catch those teams even if they get maximum points in their last two matches against the Scarlets and Ospreys.

*Edinburgh kept their play-off hopes alive with a 31-21 win over Connacht in Galway.

South African-born prop Pierre Schoeman, who will tour with the British and Irish Lions this year, scored one of Edinburgh’s four tries in the match.

The win moved Sean Everitt’s side up to ninth in the table with 44 points.

They will face Ulster in the final round next weekend.

*Leinster will be the top seeds for the United Rugby Championship play-offs after a comfortable 76-5 win over Zebre at Lansdowne Road.

With nine of their 2025 British and Irish Lions on duty, Leo Cullen’s men returned to the scene of last week’s deflating Champions Cup semifinal defeat to Northampton Saints.

James Lowe’s 66th try in 89 appearances gave Leinster a 38-0 half-time lead, adding to scores from Ronan Kelleher, Luke McGrath, Ryan Baird, and Jordie Barrett (2).

While Gonzalo Garcia’s 65th-minute effort was Zebre’s only response, Sam Prendergast, Josh van der Flier, Jamie Osborne (2), Ciaran Frawley, and James Culhane took the hosts’ try haul to 12.

Two minutes in, Jack Conan broke impressively and offloaded for fellow B&I Lions call-up Kelleher to finish powerfully. Prendergast kicked the first of his 17 points.

McGrath took Leinster into double figures, following up on a Van der Flier surge. Baird barged over to make it 19-0, midway through the half.

Player-of-the-match Barrett bagged Leinster’s bonus point in the 24th minute, a slick first-phase move seeing Prendergast play him in from a few metres out.

Barrett crashed over again on the half-hour mark, via a pass from blood replacement Jamison Gibson-Park. Prendergast tagged on his fourth conversion.

Nice hands put Lowe over before the interval, and Prendergast started the second half’s try-scoring by finishing off a pacy length-of-the-field counterattack.

The tricky Jacopo Trulla tried his best to inspire Zebre, but when a high ball bounced loose off Scott Gregory’s hand, Van der Flier capitalised to complete his brace.

A full 52 points to the good, Leinster brought on seven replacements. Osborne soon collected Barrett’s precise kick to cruise in at the corner.

Zebre prop Juan Pitinari briefly threatened before replacement Frawley’s fine finish from 42 metres out saw him crown his 100th Leinster cap.

Simone Gesi’s weaving run had Leinster backpedalling, and scrumhalf Garcia squeezed over from a metre out to get the Italians on the board.

However, Culhane and Osborne added two late tries at the other end, with the 71-point winning margin a new URC record for Leinster.

See below for Saturday’s scores and scorers!

Benetton 33-7 Glasgow

The scorers:

For Benetton:
Tries: Odogwu, Maile, Smith, Menoncello, Umaga
Cons: Umaga 4

For Glasgow Warriors:
Try: Jones
Con: Horne

Teams:

Benetton: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Ignacio Brex, 11 Paolo Odogwu, 10 Jacob Umaga, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Riccardo Favretto, 5 Federico Ruzza (captain), 4 Scott Scrafton, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Siua Maile, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 Niccolò Cannone, 20 Sebastian Negri, 21 Nicolò Casilio, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Malakai Fekitoa.

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Ollie Smith, 14 Jamie Dobie, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Stafford McDowall, 11 Kyle Steyn (captain), 10 Tom Jordan, 9 George Horne, 8 Sione Vailanu, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Scott Cummings, 5 Alex Samuel, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Fin Richardson, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Jamie Bhatti.
Replacements: 16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Nathan McBeth, 18 Murphy Walker, 19 JP du Preez, 20 Euan Ferrie, 21 Ben Afshar, 22 Adam Hastings, 23 Kyle Rowe.

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant referees: Federico Vedovelli (Italy), Lauren Jenner (Italy)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (Wales)

Connacht 21-31 Edinburgh

The scorers:

For Connacht:
Tries: Treacy 2, Bolton
Cons: Hanrahan 3

For Edinburgh:
Tries: Schoeman, Watson, Muncaster, Shiel
Cons: Thompson 3, Healy
Pen: Healy

Teams:

Connacht: 15 Santiago Cordero, 14 Shayne Bolton, 13 Hugh Gavin, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Finn Treacy, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Ben Murphy, 8 Sean Jansen, 7 Conor Oliver, 6 Cian Prendergast (captain), 5 Darragh Murray, 4 Josh Murphy, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Dave Heffernan, 1 Denis Buckley.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Tierney-Martin, 17 Peter Dooley, 18 Jack Aungier, 19 Oisín Dowling, 20 Paul Boyle, 21 Caolin Blade, 22 Cathal Forde, 23 David Hawkshaw

Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Matt Currie, 12 Mosese Tuipulotu, 11 Jack Brown, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Ali Price, 8 Magnus Bradbury (captain), 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Ben Muncaster, 5 Sam Skinner, 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 D’arcy Rae, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Paddy Harrison, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Glen Young, 20 Liam McConnell, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Ben Healy, 23 James Lang.

Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales)
Assistant referees: Robbie Jenkinson (Ireland), Padraic Reidy (Ireland)
TMO: Tom Spurrier (Wales)

Leinster 76-5 Zebre

The scorers:

For Leinster:
Tries: Kelleher, McGrath, Baird, Barrett 2, Lowe, Prendergast, Van der Flier, Osborne 2, Frawley, Culhane
Cons: Prendergast 6, Frawley 2

For Zebre:
Try: Garcia

Teams:

Leinster: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Jimmy O’Brien, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jack Conan (captain), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Ryan Baird, 5 Diarmuid Mangan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Jack Boyle.
Replacements: 16 John McKee, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 James Ryan, 20 James Culhane, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Ciarán Frawley, 23 Robbie Henshaw

Zebre: 15 Jacopo Trulla, 14 Scott Gregory, 13 Fetuli Paea, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 8 Davide Ruggeri (captain), 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Bautista Stavile, 5 Leonard Krumov, 4 Rusiate Nasove, 3 Juan Pitinari, 2 Giampietro Ribaldi, 1 Luca Franceschetto.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Muhamed Hasa, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Matteo Canali, 20 Giacomo Ferrari, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Giacomo Da Re, 23 Filippo Drago.

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Keane Davison (Ireland), Dan Carson (Ireland)
TMO: Colin Brett (Scotland)