Connacht thrash Zebre in lopsided affair
Pat Lam's men ran in six tries before the break to take total control of the game despite Zebre crossing for two themselves early on.
But there was only ever going to be one winner in this encounter as Connacht added four more tries in the second half. It completed a miserable few days in Ireland for Zebre after they followed their 10-try Pro12 loss to Leinster last weekend by conceding the same number of tries in Galway to go down to their 17th successive European defeat.
Matt Healy, Tiernan O'Halloran and Kieran Marmion ended the one-sided contest with two tries apiece leaving Connacht to turn their attentions to next weekend's crunch visit to Toulouse.
A fast start saw both sides score two tries inside an entertaining opening quarter.
With less than 90 seconds on the clock, O'Halloran's searing break allowed Healy to go over in the corner, John Cooney converting for a 7-0 lead.
Zebre have had a miserable Champions Cup campaign but with nothing to lose, they rolled the dice and soon hit back. Back row forwards Johan Meyer and Federico Ruzza crossed for two quick-fire scores from close range and with Italian flyhalf Carlo Canna adding the extras, it was now 14-7 to the visitors.
A capacity Sportsground crowd were shocked but with Zebre vulnerable defensively, it wasn't long before their team were back ahead and with a bonus point too.
With Marmion looking dangerous at scrumhalf, Cooney sprinted clear to score before O'Halloran collected the flyhalf's delicate chip through to dot down underneath the posts. Cooney converted both scores before prop Finlay Bealham crossed from a rolling maul for the crucial fourth of the day.
Cooney kicked the goal once more to make it 28-14 and it wasn't long before the wheels fell off for Zebre.
The visitors were struggling with discipline and their penalty count was through the roof so it was no surprise when Lloyd Greef and Pietro Cecccarelli were both yellow carded in quick succession.
Down to 13 men, Zebre's already failing defence then fell apart, the excellent Marmion crossing himself and then setting up Craig Ronaldson for another just before half time. Cooney converted the second of those scores to make it 40-14 at the break.
Zebre began the second half two men light and the action continued to follow a familiar pattern.
Just seconds after the restart, Healy brushed off some woeful tackling to score in the corner and O'Halloran then added his second of the game.
Cooney's kicking was superb and two more conversions took him to 19 points for the day.
The return of Greef and Cecccarelli helped Zebre shore things up a touch and while Marmion crossed for Connacht's ninth after running another superb support line, the visitors didn't go away.
After finally finding some possession, Mattia Bellini scored their third try, Canna converting, and by that stage both teams had made a raft of changes.
That failed to stop the scoring, though, as replacement Caolin Blade made it 10 home tries on the day to complete the rout late on.
The scorers:
For Connacht:
Tries: Healy 2, Cooney, O’Halloran 2, Bealham, Marmion 2, Ronaldson, Blade
Cons: Cooney 8
For Zebre:
Tries: Meyer, Ruzza, Bellini
Cons: Canna 3
Yellow Cards: Greef (Zebre), Ceccarelli (Zebre)
Connacht: 15 Tiernan O’Halloran, 14 Niyi Adeolokun, 13 Rory Parata, 12 Craig Ronaldson, 11 Matt Healy, 10 John Cooney, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 John Muldoon (captain), 7 Eoin McKeon, 6 Sean O’Brien, 5 James Cannon, 4 Lewis Stevenson, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Tom McCartney, 1 Denis Buckley
Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan, 17 JP Cooney, 18 John Andress, 19 James Connolly, 20 Naulia Dawai, 21 Caolin Blade, 22 Tom Farrell, 23 Danie Poolman
Zebre: 15 Kurt Baker, 14 Lloyd Greeff, 13 Edoardo Padovani, 12 Mattia Bellini, 11 Guglielmo Palazzani, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Federico Ruzza, 7 Johan Meyer, 6 Maxime Mbandà (c), 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Oliviero Fabiani, 17 Andrea De Marchi, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 George Biagi, 21 Carlo Engelbrecht, 22 Derick Minnie, 23 Serafin Bordoli
Referee: Tom Foley (England)
Assistant Referees: Ian Tempest (England), Roger Baileff (England)
TMO: Sean Davey (England)
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