Tuilagi raced home with three minutes to go to clinch a 34-29 victory for Tigers in an exciting clash at the Stadio di Monigo.
His late score was Tigers' 300th in the Heineken Cup and added to tries by Matt Smith, Craig Newby, Martin Castrogiovanni and Ben Youngs, it helped Tigers to a bonus point win at the start of their Heineken Cup campaign.
Tuilagi said: “The try was all about the hard work from the team. I am really glad I had that chance to score the try to win in a great competition like this but it was all about the team work.
“We played really well but we dropped our standard a little bit and we let them back into it but at the end we still had the confidence to win the game.
“Benetton Treviso played really well. They fought really hard against us. They are a good side.
“At the end of the game we had to fight back and in a competition like this, we never give up.
“We showed that we are champions and that we never give up. The spirit is there to work together as a team.
“We made some mistakes but we still had that belief all the way to the end of the game.”
