Zebre Parma 34
Connacht 57
CONNACHT SURVIVED A huge second-half scare at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi but ultimately twice pulled away from Zebre to seal a thrilling 57-34 victory in Italy.
A 27-minute Dylan Tierney-Martin hat-trick — Connacht’s fourth treble in as many games — looked as though it had more than set Connacht on their way, but by full-time the hooker’s prolific opening salvo felt like a distant memory as Andy Friend’s men breathed a sigh of relief.
Most importantly, Connacht picked up a crucial bonus-point victory to keep alive their URC play-off hopes. Pressingly, though, they almost blew a 25-point half-time lead before they eventually turned the screw on their tired hosts in the dying minutes.
It was replacement wing Adam Byrne who eventually dotted down for the definitive score, while Tiernan O’Halloran, Caolin Blade, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Kieran Marmion and Eoin de Buitléar all also added to Tierney-Martin’s early triple.
Zebre came into the game winless in 13 URC games this term, while Connacht had won just once away from home all season. Something had to give and, ultimately, it was the Italians — but not without serious fight.
Connacht got down to business almost instantly, hooker Tierney-Martin scored their first of nine tries from a five-metre drive on the left-hand side. Jack Carty split the posts for the extras, and Andy Friend’s men were off to a flier.
Tierney-Martin was then caught on the wrong side of a ruck which afforded Zebre a three-point reply through the boot of Tiff Eden. The English out-half reduced the gap to one soon afterwards, kicking into the sun from an identical spot about 35 metres from goal, left of centre.
For the hosts, anything of structure was often shambolic, but they kept Connacht honest early through sheer chaos, producing a couple of trademark flashes of brilliance in broken play.
Connacht, too, were messy throughout the opening quarter despite their strong start as both sides exchanged free-kicks and scrums for careless errors.
On 23 minutes, however, Connacht made their way back to the Zebre 5′ through back-to-back penalty infringements by their hosts. This time, a handful of their backs joined the maul to ensure Tierney-Martin got over for his and the western province’s second try which was otherwise identical to the first. Carty pulled his conversion left, but his side led 12-6.
Zebre’s indiscipline would cost them again just three minutes later as Carty once more prodded Connacht to the precipice of the Zebre 5′. Though the lineout, this time, was on the right-hand side, the end result was no different: Tierney-Martin eventually crashed over again, sealing a 27-minute hat-trick. Carty stretched Connacht’s lead to 19-6 from the touchline.
They wrapped up the bonus point on 31 minutes. Tiernan O’Halloran, already impressive to that point, took a quick lineout to Niall Murray. The lock fed the onrushing Caolin Blade back inside, and the scrum-half in turn brilliantly rode a tackle and offloaded to O’Halloran who dove over in the right-hand corner. Carty, on this occasion, was off the mark with his conversion.
Left wing Simone Gesi responded almost instantly for Zebre after scrum-half Chris Cook picked Connacht’s pocket at the ruck in their 22′. Eden converted from the left to narrow the deficit to 11.
The end-to-end scoring continued apace, however, as Connacht got over for their fifth: O’Halloran returned the favour for Blade on a quick transition down the right, and the western province looked all but out of sight with two minutes of the first half remaining as Carty nailed his third conversion.
They took a 31-13 lead in with them at the turnaround.
Diarmuid Kilgallen and Zebre’s Erich Cronje traded similar-looking scores down their respective right-hand sides after the restart, the conversions by Carty and Eden both successful. It was 38-20 to Connacht on 47 minutes.
Zebre took control in the third quarter, however, roaring back into the contest with two more back-to-back scores: they scored their third try through lock Josh Furno after Eden exposed a dog-leg in the Connacht defence as Tom Farrell jumped out of their defensive line. Eden brought the gap back to 11 with more than 20 minutes remaining.
The out-half again turned provider as Zebre secured their four-try bonus point just after the hour mark, Gesi waltzing down the left for his second. Eden nailed another kick and, having led 38-13 early in the second half, Connacht looked up to see their gap was quickly down to four.
They rode out the storm, however, and following a huge turnover by Jarrad Butler, replacement Adam Byrne sealed the deal from close range with seven minutes remaining, breaking Zebre hearts. Carty converted for 45-34.
A converted intercept score by another sub, Kieran Marmion, made it 52-34 and, with the clock red, Connacht bookended the game with a maul score by debutant hooker Eoin de Buitléar. Carty’s conversion, wide, was the final play, and Connacht will head for home both with maximum points and lots of questions.
Scorers for Zebre Parma:
Tries: Simone Gesi (2), Erich Cronje, Josh Furno
Cons: Tiff Eden (4/4)
Pens: Tiff Eden (2/2)
Scorers for Connacht:
Tries: Dylan Tierney-Martin (3), Tiernan O’Halloran, Caolin Blade, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Adam Byrne, Kieran Marmion, Eoin de Buitléar
Cons: Jack Carty (6/9)
Pens:
Zebre Parma: Lorenzo Pani; Kobus van Wyk, Erich Cronjé, Enrico Lucchin (capt), Simone Gesi; Tiff Eden, Chris Cook; Luca Rizzoli, Marco Manfredi, Matteo Nocera; Leonard Krumov, Josh Furno; Luca Andreani, Matt Kvesic, Giovanni Licata.
Replacements: Giampietro Ribaldi, Paolo Buonfiglio, Muhamed Hasa, Jan Uys, Davide Ruggeri, Ratko Jelic, Antonio Rizzi, Richard Kriel
Connacht: Tiernan O’Halloran; Diarmuid Kilgallen, Tom Farrell, Cathal Forde, John Porch; Jack Carty (capt), Caolin Blade; Denis Buckley, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Jack Aungier; Josh Murphy, Niall Murray; Cian Prendergast, Conor Oliver, Jarrad Butler.
Replacements: Eoin de Buitléar, Jordan Duggan, Sam Illo, Darragh Murray, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Kieran Marmion, Tom Daly, Adam Byrne
