Dragons crushed as ruthless Benetton run in eleven tries

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