Zebre score bonus point win over sorry Cardiff in Pro12
Last Updated: 01/11/15 7:47pm
Zebre claimed their second PRO12 victory in as many weeks and condemned Cardiff Blues to their fifth straight defeat after a 26-15 bonus point triumph in Parma.
Cardiff, who have not won since beating Zebre at home on the opening day, continue to struggle and will be desperate to get their World Cup stars back in action to arrest the slide.
The Italians took charge with tries from Kayle Van Zyl, Andries Van Schalkwyk (two) and Johan Meyer, while fly-half Carlos Canna kicked a six-point haul.
Cardiff notched tries from Adam Thomas and Tom James, while Rhys Patchell added five points with the boot, but it wasn't enough.
Two tries in the first 10 minutes got the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi crowd on their feet early.
The hosts scored an early breakthrough when right wing Van Zyl collected Canna's offload to cross in the corner after just three minutes.
Canna was unable to add the conversion and opposite number Patchell missed a similar effort minutes later when Thomas dotted down after a well-worked Blues backs move to level the game at 5-5.
Cardiff, who were without rested trio Sam Warburton, Gethin Jenkins and Alex Cuthbert, maintained parity for just eight minutes before the hosts took the lead again.
Matteo Pratichetti sparked a break from deep and Van Schalkwyk finished before Meyer seized on Canna's deft chip over the top to score the hosts' third try after 28 minutes.
Canna converted both, while Patchell split the posts with a 33rd minute penalty, to make it 19-8 at the interval.
James set up a tense finale by crashing over after a superb break from Williams just before the hour mark and Patchell was spot on with the conversion to make it 19-15 going into the last quarter.
And when Andrea De Marchi was sent to the sin bin with 13 minutes remaining it looked like Cardiff could nick it, but Zebre number 8 Van Schalkwyk closed out the contest with his second try in the 75th minute.
Canna converted to complete the scoring.