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Benetton Treviso will fancy their chances when they host French side Biarritz Olympique in the first of their back-to-back Heineken Cup clashes in Pool 5 at the Stadio Comunale Monigo on Saturday.
The Italian side, fresh from their 26-26 home draw to the Ospreys in the last round of games, will be hoping to emulate fellow Italian outfit, Aironi, by lowering the colours of the two-times beaten finalists on Italian soil.
Aironi, playing in their first year of European competition, famously beat Biarritz in last season’s Heineken Cup and caused one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history.
Biarritz, who beat Saracens 15-10 at home in the last round, will still have ambitions of reaching the knockout stages and will be looking to complete the double over the Italian outfit.
The Basque outfit, which reached the Heineken Cup final in 2006 and 2010, will be determined to become the first side to lose to both Italian sides on the road in the Heineken Cup.
Benetton Treviso clinched a famous 30 v 26 victory over Biarritz Olympique on Saturday afternoon, maintaining their unbeaten home record in the tournament this season.
Following up from their impressive draw against the Ospreys in Round 2, Kristopher Burton inspired Treviso to victory in northern Italy.
The Italian side raced into an early lead in Treviso with tries from Michele Rizzo and Robert Barbieri. Fly-half Kristopher Burton added both conversions to give his side a 14 v 0 advantage.
Pelu Taele grabbed a try back for the visitors but Cornelius van Zyl was soon adding his name to the scoresheet as the second-row touched down for Treviso’s third try.
Biarritz, through Marcelo Bosch narrowed the deficit with a second try just before the break but Burton had the last word of the half kicking a penalty to give Treviso a 24 v 12 lead at the interval.
Burton kicked his second penalty at the start of the second period but after that point it was one way traffic from the visitors. Damien Traille went over after 58 minutes, followed by Yann Lesgourgues five minutes later. Replacement Julien Peyrelongue added four points with the boot to bring the scores to within a point with 15 minutes to play.
Burton though took his tally to 16 points with another penalty with two minutes from time clinch the famous victory.
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