Cardiff claimed a crucial victory over their URC play-off rivals at the Arms Park and denied them a losing bonus point into the bargain.

Player of the Match Josh McNally was their try scorer in a hard-fought contest with replacement Ioan Lloyd landing a penalty from the touchline with the last kick of the game to ensure Benetton headed back to Italy empty handed.

It’s a victory which sees Cardiff move back up to fourth place in the league table with a trip to Belfast to take on sixth-placed Ulster to come next Saturday.

When the game got underway in front of a crowd of 8,052, the home side began with a big defensive set to earn a penalty and then went on the attack.

It looked as though they were going to open the scoring on five minutes when McNally was fed by a pop pass from fellow second row George Nott, but he just lost the ball as he stretched out for the line.

The hosts proceeded to monopolise the opening 15 minutes in terms of territory and possession, earning their reward with a brace of successful penalties from fly-half Callum Sheedy – the first following a big scrum shove, the second after an offside offence.

The Italian visitors came more into the game as the half wore on and were handed a numerical advantage when Wales flanker Alex Mann was yellow carded for a ruck offence near his own line.

But Cardiff held firm through the ten minute sin bin period during which they made a change with Iwan Stephens leaving the field with a knee problem to be replaced on the wing by Mason Grady.

Once restored to 15 men, they applied late pressure on the opposition line just before the break as the rain came down but were unable to hold on to the slippery ball.

So the half time whistle blew with the score at 6-0 and all to play for.

The hosts made a second injury enforced change to their back line at the break with Lloyd taking over at full-back from Jacob Beetham who had been feeling his ankle.

Their lead was briefly halved when South African Rhyno Smith slotted a penalty, but they then reasserted control by claiming the opening try of the game on 48 minutes.

After a succession of forward carries, it was McNally who went for the whitewash from close range and the big lock was not to be denied this time as he ploughed over for his second try for the club,

Cardiff put more points on the board when Lloyd took over the kicking duties to slot a penalty on the hour mark only for Benetton to strike back with a try of their own from a second row.

Federico Ruzza was the man to force his way over, but full-back Smith was off target with the relatively straightforward conversion attempt to make it 14-8 going into the closing stages amid a grandstand finish.

It looked as though the visitors were going to take the lead when their Argentine wing Ignacio Mendy sprinted in under the posts seven minutes from time, but the score was disallowed for a forward pass from Filippo Drago to Alessandro Garbisi in the build-up.

Cardiff then took a grip on proceedings as the clock ticked down and earned a penalty in the final play.

With their fans chanting ‘Points, Points’, they obliged as Lloyd bisected the posts from the left touchline.

Italian job done!