Casellato: We are building our future

Nothing to cheer about, especially for a team that has represented Italy so well in European rugby since the game turned professional some 20 years ago.

Treviso have shown some encouraging progress in the last outings before the European break, forcing a draw against reigning champions Leinster and scoring three tries in defeat to the Blues in Cardiff. Since the start of the new campaign captain Antonio Pavanello and his teammates have crossed the whitewash a total of 13 times, seven in the last two games.

"We feel alright," said head coach Umberto Casellato. "We are getting better and better every week.

"We are working at our problems with a very profitable relaxed approach and we are very confident we will get even better.

"The team plays with quality and self-belief, something we had never experienced this season, nor in the warm-up friendly in the summer when we were unable to compete properly against teams of the Italian Eccellenza. We are working well and we are always focused so results will come."

Benetton Treviso brought in Casellato, former Zebre backs coach and Italian champions with Mogliano in 2013, as they struggled to get past the long tenure of South African Franco Smith, in charge at the Stadio Monigo from 2007 until the end of last year.

With the appointment of the former Treviso and Italy scrum-half, the Green and Whites broke with their past, opting for a more modern playing philosophy.

"We are very lucky to play in a competition that has no relegation as that allow us to work without pressure on a long-term target," he said.

"We are building a new idea of rugby that differs a lot from the one the club has adopted in the last seven seasons so it takes some time to have everything fixed.

"But we are progressing well and with the foreigners signed in the summer that are starting to speak a bit of Italian, the in-play communication has improved a lot.

"We need time but we will get there. We are performing well recently and we have lost a couple of games that were in our hands but that simply means that we are not ready yet.

"It's not a matter of luck but of completeness. We have fixed our defence, as we now play with more efficacy, and we have improved a lot our attacking movements.

"What we are looking at now is to combine both to create a well-rounded 80-minute performance. At this level every error and every chance missed makes a huge difference."

Treviso will travel to Edinburgh next week before taking Zebre twice in the highly-anticipated end-of-year double derby.

And the boss is adamant a slow start of the season has not changed Treviso's goals for the season.

"We want to play the Champions Cup again next year and to do so we need to finish ahead of Zebre in the GUINNESS PRO12," added the 45-year-old.

"I guess we will see the best Benetton of the season in our six home games of next year but we will try to get good results in the last three games of 2014.

"We know how strong Edinburgh and Zebre can be at home, yet we will play with confidence as we believe we have the quality to cause them a lot of problems."

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