Edinburgh leave it late but secure tight win over Zebre Parma in Italy
Edinburgh were far from their best and made Zebre Parma pay for a lack of discipline as they left it late to secure a hard-fought 24-19 BKT United Rugby Championship victory at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.
The Scottish side trailed for the majority of the game due to an early Gonzalo Garcia try and the boot of Giovanni Montemauri, but they eventually wore the Italians down.
They were awarded a penalty try in addition to scores from Boan Venter and Dave Cherry, and two conversions and a penalty from Ben Healy was enough to see them return home with four points in a game that saw flanker Hamish Watson make his 150th appearance for the club.
The Italians were quick out of the blocks and went in for the game’s opening try after just three minutes of the contest.
It was dangerman Simone Gesi who was the architect of the score as he broke through three tackles down the left wing before flipping the ball to scrum-half Garcia to cross. Montemauri converted from the touchline.
And after soaking up a period of Edinburgh pressure when strong defence denied the Scottish side’s rolling maul, Montemauri extended the advantage with a straightforward penalty.
Edinburgh finally got on the board seven minutes before the interval when Healy slotted a penalty but a disjointed first-half display left them with work to do after the interval.
Montemauri kicked another penalty early in the second half before Edinburgh got themselves right back into the game with 46 minutes on the clock.
Edinburgh were knocking on the door against a spirited Zebre rearguard and in the eighth phase Venter managed the squeeze under the covering Zebre defence to touch down, with Healy’s conversion making it 13-10.
But the home side would not lie down and Montemauri sent over a third penalty of the evening after Edinburgh were penalised for not releasing after a tackle.
Edinburgh went ahead for the first time with 12 minutes remaining when referee Ben Whitehouse went under the posts to award a penalty try after Dylan de Leeuw was yellow carded for hauling down a dangerous rolling maul and that left the Scots 17-16 ahead
The visitors stretched their advantage as lack of discipline caught up with Zebre and it was again the maul that caused the damage as Cherry powered over with the Italian defence in disarray following three straight penalties deep in their own half.
Geronimo Prisciantelli’s late penalty secured a losing bonus-point for Zebre – their seventh of the season.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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