Blues round off their Rainbow Cup campaign with entertaining win
CARDIFF Blues ended their Rainbow Cup campaign with a comprehensive 37-12 bonus point victory over Zebre at the Arms Park.
Tries from Gwilym Bradley, James Botham, Dan Fish and Harri Millard along with a penalty try pushed Dai Young’s side over the winning line, with Jarrod Evans adding 10 points with the boot.
Zebre scored two tries of their own courtesy of Pierre Bruno and Federico Mori, while Carlo Canna slotted over one conversion.
It took 10 minutes before the game yielded any points, with Evans kicking Cardiff into the lead.
Zebre’s inability to defend the driving lineout then resulted in them getting temporarily reduced to 14 men when Oliviero Fabiani was sent to the sin-bin for illegally sacking the maul.
And Cardiff made the most of their numerical advantage when blindside Bradley crashed over from the resulting lineout.
There was to be no let-up for Zebre as Cardiff continued to attack their try line, and after a series of pick-and-goes by the home side’s forwards, Botham managed to force his way over the line, with Evans converting.
Cardiff were soon celebrating their third try after some neat passing from Evans and Matthew Morgan put Fish over at the left-hand corner.
Evans converted from the touchline, but Zebre had the last say of the half with a well-timed pass from Canna sending Bruno over. Canna added the extras, meaning Cardiff led 22-7 at the interval.
Zebre began the second half with a cracking try from long range as impressive centre Mori ran in unopposed from 50 metres out.
Canna missed the conversion, but Zebre had narrowed Cardiff’s lead to 10 points.
Zebre now had the bit between their teeth as their forwards put the hosts under pressure, but the visitors shot themselves in the foot when loosehead prop Daniele Rimpelli was sent to the sin-bin for an illegal clearout at the ruck.
Evans added salt to their wounds as he nudged Cardiff further ahead with a straightforward penalty from right in front of the posts.
Zebre completely lost their discipline when replacement second row Cristian Stoian was red-carded for a dangerous act of foul play as his shoulder made direct contact to the head of Tomos Williams.
The Italian outfit were then reduced to 13 men for the rest of the game after Canno deliberately slapped the ball over the dead ball line which prevented his opposite number Evans from touching down for a try. Canno was given a yellow card and Cardiff were awarded a penalty try.
Cardiff ended the game with a terrific team try that was started in their own 22.
Ben Thomas then ghosted past three Zebre defenders before unloading a terrific looping pass to put Millard over at the corner.