Pro12: Connacht 18-3 Treviso

Connacht's Tiernan O'Halloran and Danie Poolman tackle Christian Loamanu of Treviso

Danie Poolman crowned his first start for Connacht by scoring a first-half try in a drab Pro12 win over Treviso.

Former Stormers player Poolman, making his home debut at outside centre, helped the Irish province carve out a 13-0 lead by the interval.

Connacht closed out their third win of the campaign, moving up to eighth place in the process, with a late try from fit-again captain Gavin Duffy.

Treviso's only reply was a crisply-struck penalty by Alberto di Bernardo.

Before the Poolman try, Connacht had established a 6-0 advantage thanks to two Dan Parks penalties.

The first try came after Robbie Henshaw led the chase onto Parks' well-weighted punt.

The young full-back toe-poked the ball on and the onrushing Poolman did well to score after some assistance from O'Halloran and Parks converted.

The understrength Italians were unable to threaten in the home 22 in reply but the visitors did improve in the second period and seemingly lifted their game after replacement Giulio Toniolatti saw yellow on the hour mark.

Fly-half Di Bernardo raised their hopes of a late push for a losing bonus point as he slotted a 61st minute penalty.

He struck the post with a second penalty attempt, eight minutes from time, before Connacht produced a strong finish to seal victory.

Parks watched a penalty kick fade away to the right, but replacement John Muldoon's determined run from the restart took him past two defenders and the ball was worked wide for Duffy to dive in at the corner.