Second half blitz see Bears sink Zebre
MATCH REPORT: Bristol Bears scored six second-half tries as they won 34-11 at Zebre Parma on Saturday to seal their progression to the EPCR Challenge Cup Round of 16 with a game to spare.
Harry Thacker grabbed a hat-trick of scores at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi along with further efforts from Ioan Lloyd, Fitz Harding and Magnus Bradbury.
Zebre led at the break thanks to two Tiff Eden penalties, but the Italian outfit were undone following the restart.
Thacker notched his first on 43 minutes before Lloyd went over nine minutes later, though Zebre hit back through Simone Gesi’s score on the hour mark.
But the hosts were overrun in the final 15 minutes as Thacker dotted down again before Luca Rizzoli was yellow-carded.
That opened the floodgates for Bristol as Thacker, Harding and Bradbury all crossed in the closing stages.
Fly-half Callum Sheedy had an off day for Bristol, converting only two of his side’s six tries.
Bristol host USAP on Friday as they look to conclude their Pool A campaign with a fourth straight win and secure top seeding for the knockout stage, while winless Zebre visit RC Toulon on the same day.
The scorers
For Zebre
Tries: Gesi
Pens: Eden (2)
For the Bristol Bears
Tries: Thacker (3), Lloyd, Harding, Bradbury
Cons: Sheedy (2)
Yellow card: Luca Rizzoli (Zebre, 73’)
Zebre: 15 Jacopo Trulla, 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Enrico Lucchin (captain), 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Tiff Eden, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Davide Ruggeri, 7 Matt Kvesic, 6 Guido Volpi, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Josh Furno, 3 Matteo Nocera, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Paolo Buonfiglio.
Replacements: 16 Marco Manfredi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Gabriele Venditti, 20 Giovanni Licata, 21 Ratko Jelic, 22 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23 Erich Cronjé.
Bristol Bears: 15 Henry Purdy, 14 Toby Fricker, 13 Semi Radradra, 12 Ioan Lloyd, 11 Ratu Naulago, 10 Callum Sheedy, 9 Harry Randall, 8 Fitz Harding, 7 Jake Heenan, 6 Magnus Bradbury, 5 Chris Vui, 4 Joe Joyce, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Harry Thacker, 1 Ellis Genge (captain).
Replacements: 16 Fred Davies, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Joe Batley, 20 Daniel Thomas, 21 Andy Uren, 22 James Williams, 23 Jack Bates.
Referee: Luc Ramos (France)
Assistant referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France) & Christian Coussan (France)
TMO: Patrick Dellac (France)
@ChallengeCup
