IT was a rollercoaster of emotions in Treviso last weekend but our second-half performance in the loss to Benetton does give us the belief that we can end our wait for a long overdue away win in the league.

We’ve stayed in Italy this week to prepare for tomorrow’s game with Zebre and it’s still hard to believe that we are still on a losing streak on the road in the Guinness PRO14.

Going into the closing stages at Benetton we looked good but unfortunately we put ourselves in a position where a referee’s decision would have the final and unfortunately biggest impact on the game.

We made a bad start and had a poor first half, which is the opposite of how we usually go, but we came out in the second half and turned it from 26-6 to 27-26.

We scored three great team tries that shows what we are capable of when we play with belief and stick to the patterns with everyone doing their job.

To then concede a last-minute penalty on our own scrum was heart-breaking and none of us could believe the decision.

They kicked it and our emotions went from elation at a brilliant comeback to devastation.

However, if we play like we did in the second half then I am sure we can sign off with a win at Zebre before preparing for our last game of the season against the Scarlets at Judgement Day.

The team played with plenty of youthful exuberance, it was good to see Taine Basham being confident and doing well after coming on in the back row early, while Connor Edwards was abrasive and excellent in midfield, deserving his try when he finished a sequence of quality offloading.

The trip will be an invaluable experience for our squad – when I got on the bus at Rodney Parade last week it felt like I was on a youth trip. Thankfully Rynard Landman and Zane Kirchner got on to stop me being the oldest.

Everyone has mixed really well and it’s been good to bond as a squad because the majority of us will be here next year. If we can end with a positive result then it will do us the power of good.

We spent the early part of the week using Viadana’s very professional facilities and they have been great because bodies do feel a little bit more sore after a defeat like last weekend.

I had fond memories of the ground thanks to some wins back in the days of Aironi rather than being haunted by past close losses.

Yesterday we headed south to L’Aquila – Zebre have taken this game away from their usual home in Parma – to prepare.

The bus journey wasn’t ideal but is still better than the usual trip to Bristol Airport for a PRO14 away game, now we just have to make sure that we make a faster start than we did in Treviso.

Do that and we are confident that we will go into next season looking for back-to-back away wins rather than still attempting to get the monkey off our back.