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Connacht hammer Zebre away in Italy

By PA
Matt Healy of Connacht is tackled by Nicolas De Battista of Zebre during the Guinness PRO14 Round 2 match between Connacht and Zebre at The Sportsground in Galway. (Photo By Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Connacht bounced back from last week’s narrow defeat by Scarlets with a comfortable 47-12 Guinness PRO14 win at Zebre.

The Westerners racked up seven tries with Tom Daly and Alex Wootton grabbing two apiece in Parma.

Tommaso Boni broke through to give the Italians an early lead but two Jack Carty penalties cut the deficit before Sean O’Brien drove over.

Maro Itoje on win over Ireland:

Wootton’s double put Connacht 23-7 up at the interval before Sam Arnold and Daly stretched the advantage to 26 points.

Connacht were reduced to 14 men when Abraham Papali’i was shown a red card for a head-high challenge on Boni, and Marco Manfredi promptly scored Zebre’s second try.

But a penalty try put the visitors 40-12 up and Daly chased down Conor Fitzgerald’s kick through to complete the scoring.