Bristol Bears cruise to victory over Saffa-laden Zebre

MATCH REPORT: Bristol Bears eased to a bonus-point win in the Challenge Cup as they defeated Zebre Parma 35-19 at Ashton Gate on Sunday.

The Premiership side crossed through Joe Batley, Will Porter, Semi Radradra, Ioan Lloyd and Yann Thomas.

Zebre were well beaten, but notched through a penalty try and second-half efforts from Kobus van Wyk and Jacques du Toit.

Bristol took the lead on 14 minutes as lock Batley capitalised on a comedy of errors from Zebre under their own posts, but the hosts hit back moments later as they were awarded a penalty try following a deliberate knock-on from Lloyd.

The centre was sent to the sin bin for the infringement, but Bristol were undeterred, crossing through scrum-half Porter and centre Radradra while down to 14 men.

There was redemption for Llyod as he dotted down to secure the bonus point on 33 minutes, and replacement prop Thomas added a fifth a quarter of an hour into the second half after an outrageous offload from Radradra.

Zebre would grab consolation scores through wing van Wyk and replacement hooker du Toit, the latter coming in the closing minutes after Batley was sent to the sin bin.

Round three sees the two sides go head-to-head once again, this time at Zebre’s Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi on January 14.

The scorers:

For Bristol Bears:
Tries: Batley, Porter, Radradra, Lloyd, Thomas
Cons: MacGinty 5

For Zebre:
Tries: Penalty Try, Van Wyk, Du Toit
Cons: Eden

Bristol Bears: 15 Luke Morahan, 14 Deago Bailey, 13 Semi Radradra, 12 Ioan Lloyd, 11 Gabriel Ibitoye, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Will Porter, 8 Fitz Harding, 7 Jake Heenan, 6 Steven Luatua (captain), 5 Chris Vui, 4 Joe Batley, 3 Jay Tyack, 2 Harry Thacker, 1 Jake Woolmore.
Replacements: 16 Jake Kerr, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Elliott Stooke, 20 Daniel Thomas, 21 Andy Uren, 22 Callum Sheedy, 23 Piers O’Conor,

Zebre: 15 Richard Kriel, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Erich Cronjé (captain), 12 Franco SMith, 11 Simone Gesi, , 10 Tiff Eden, 9 Ratko Jelic,, 8 Taina Fox-Matamua. 7 MJ Pelser, 6 Jacopo Bianchi, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Jan Uys, 3 Ion Neculai, 2 Marco Manfredi, , 1 Juan Pitinari.
Replacements: 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Matteo Nocera, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Matt Kvesic, 21 Nicolò Casilio, 22 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23 Matteo Moscardi.

Referee: Adrien Marbot (France)
Assitsant referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France) & Stéphane Crapoix (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)

Source: @ChallengeCup