Cardiff continued their promising start to the United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign with a six-try home victory against Zebre. Wing Tom Bowen crossed for two tries, with further scores from lock Teddy Williams, prop Javan Sebastian, number eight Taine Basham and flanker Alex Mann as Cardiff followed up their opening weekend victory against Scarlets.
Cardiff led 40-8 halfway through the second half but allowed Zebre, who lost 47-13 to Bulls in the opening round, back into the game as the Italian side scored three tries in the final 21 minutes. Following a first-half try from hooker Francisco Minervino, Zebre's second-half revival provided scores for replacements Giacomo Ferrari and Giacomo Da Re, and centre Giulio Bertaccini.
The match was played in front of a crowd of 7,231 at the Arms Park. Cardiff made four personnel changes to the side that beat Scarlets, with hooker Dafydd Hughes and James Botham, who produced a player-of-the-match display, brought in for captain Liam Belcher and flanker Dan Thomas.
Zebre dominated the early exchanges with Tommaso Allan slotting over the opening three points. Cardiff rallied and after a flowing move, lock Williams powered over following a deft Mann try-scoring pass. The hosts extended the lead with a simple tap penalty move as Hughes released his front-row colleague Sebastian. Zebre demonstrated a more clinical edge with Minervino driven over, but it did not take long for Cardiff to take control again. Basham crashed over straight from an attacking scrum, and Cardiff secured the bonus-point try in the 36th minute when Mann crossed to score. The second half started with a clever grubber kick from fly-half Callum Sheedy into the hands of Bowen, who skipped over. Bowen sprinted over for his second score after being set up by scrum-half Johan Mulder. Zebre gained some reward with scores for Ferrari, Bertaccini, and Da Re as the home side became increasingly sloppy. Cardiff know there can be no repeat of this lacklustre final quarter when they travel to face defending champions Leinster in Dublin next Saturday.
Source: BBC Sport · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing