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Five-try first half sees Cardiff to bonus-point victory over Zebre Parma
By PA
Cardiff scored five first-half tries on their way to a 42-14 bonus-point victory over Zebre Parma at the Arms Park.
James Ratti, Lloyd Williams and Owen Lane (2) all touched down in an opening 40 minutes that also saw the hosts awarded a penalty try.
Cardiff struggled to add to their total in the second half, with tries from Erich Cronje and Maxime Mbanda reducing Zebre’s 35-0 half-time deficit, but Max Llewellyn went over in the closing stages to add some gloss, with Rhys Priestland kicking eight points and Ben Thomas two.
Tim O’Malley and Carlo Canna contributed a combined four points to the Zebre cause from the kicking tee.
This victory pushed Cardiff up to 13th in the United Rugby Championship table, but the end-of-season play-offs and Heineken Champions Cup qualification were already out of reach.
Cardiff started strongly as they applied pressure in the Zebre 22, with number eight Ratti powering over from close range.
Priestland added the extras and the home side were soon celebrating their second try when impressive loosehead Rhys Carre charged through the Zebre defence before offloading to Lloyd Williams, who ran in for the score.
Cardiff were then awarded a penalty try when Theo Cabango was tackled high in the act of scoring. As if the outcome was not bad enough for Zebre, culprit Junior Laloifi was also sent to the sin bin.
Cardiff had the bonus point in the bag after 21 minutes, with Lane running in unopposed from 40 metres out.
Lane claimed his second on the stroke of half-time as he hacked on a loose ball to touch down, and Priestland added the extras to give the hosts a 35-0 lead at the interval.
Zebre scored their first try just after the break, with South African Cronje showing his power to score.
The quality of the game deteriorated in the second half and Cardiff were temporarily reduced to 14 men when replacement hooker Kirby Myhill got sent to the sin bin for a late shoulder charge.
Zebre made the most of their numerical advantage with a powerful carry from Gabriele Venditti, who offloaded to Mbanda for the Italian side’s second try.
Despite remaining pointless in the second half up to that point, Cardiff had the last laugh late on when explosive centre Llewellyn sliced open the Zebre defence to run in a try from 35 metres out, with Thomas adding the extras.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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