Seb Negri’s comeback: 70 devastating minutes

I’ll say it straight: my player of the match from the Tbilisi trip hadn’t played a fresh, easy game at all. And yet for me he was the best man on the pitch, and by the end it wasn’t even a close call.

Seventy minutes, not forty

I thought they’d manage him carefully, maybe forty minutes and off with no fuss. Instead Wayne Pivac wanted to test him over the long haul: almost 70 minutes on the pitch for Sebastian Negri, Benetton’s captain, on his return after time out. And he answered in style.

There was a scary moment too, early in the second half: we saw him go down after a blow to the ribs, in a surreal scene where Black Lion players surrounded him almost as if trying to hide him from view. Thankfully nothing serious: Negri got back up and the game carried on.

Running, pressure, cover tackles: the old Negri with something extra

What struck me most is that I didn’t see the “Negri Panzer” we’re used to, the one who runs low and drives through contact. I saw him play differently: cover tackles in the last few metres, pressure on box kicks, the unglamorous work a team needs to win games. It looks like something Pivac is testing, and if it works it’s another arrow in Benetton’s quiver this season.

Who won DanPat’s player of the match?

At full time I was torn between Siua Maile – a brace and one of the best defenders in the maul – and Seb Negri. In the end my informal award goes to the captain: 70 tireless minutes after a difficult return outweigh two tries.

At full time I was torn between Siua and Negri, but in the end I’m giving it to Seb.

Read also: Benetton beat Black Lion 36-14: the scrum makes the difference | Benetton number 9 has five candidates for the shirt

We’re delighted to see him back in this kind of form: if the captain is already at this level in early September, there’s plenty of reason for optimism. Tell me what you think in the comments, and remember to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss any analysis.

Danilo — DanPat Rugby