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Luca Bigi double gives Zebre win over Benetton
By PA
Zebre claimed bragging rights in the Italian derby with a 24-15 victory over Benetton in the Guinness Pro14.
Benetton have traditionally had the better of matches between the sides and were hoping for a first win at home since beating Zebre in December 2019 but a tight encounter went the way of the visitors.
An early yellow card for Benetton’s Giovanni Pettinelli proved very costly as Luca Bigi crossed for two tries, once of which was converted by Carlo Canna.
Benetton got on the board with a Tommaso Allan penalty and the tables were turned when Renato Giammarioli was shown a yellow card for Zebre five minutes before half-time.
A Callum Braley try was converted by Allan to pull the deficit back to 12-10 before penalties from Canna and Antonio Rizzi extended the visitors’ lead again.
Monti Ioane’s 71st-minute try gave Benetton real hope but the only subsequent scores were two penalties from Rizzi.
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The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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