RUGBY NEWS - Two minutes of madness cost the Toyota Cheetahs dearly as a double yellow card swung the Guinness Pro14 match in the favour of home side Benetton Treviso, who won the match in Italy 27-21.
The Cheetahs were leading 16-8 and were in full control of the match shortly after halftime, but then lost Torsten van Jaarsveld for repeated infringements, and in the ensuing scrum halfback Shaun Venter was carded for an alleged deliberate knockdown, although the initial action and poor television replay seemed to show nothing of the sort.
Still it reduced the Cheetahs to 13 men for 10 minutes and knocked the stuffing out of their game, as the Treviso team took full control, scoring twice while the two Cheetahs were off the field and then again as they reappeared, to open up an unassailable lead.
To their credit the Cheetahs did come back with a late try, but the desperation wasn’t enough to get them over the line as they struggled against a Treviso side keen to hold onto the victory.
