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Zebre stop the rot, Cheetahs beat Scarlets

By Peter Thompson
Zebre fly-half Carlo Canna

Zebre halted a six-match losing streak with a 24-10 win over Connacht and the Cheetahs consigned Conference B leaders Scarlets to only a second Pro14 defeat of the season on Saturday.

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Not since the end of September had Zebre celebrated a victory, but tries from Johan Meyer and Giovanbattista Venditti and 14 points from the boot of Carlo Canna gave them just a third Pro14 win of the campaign.

The Italian side are now within two points of Connacht in Conference A after a hard-fought success at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, where two Canna penalties put them 6-0 up at half-time.

Tom Farrell raced through for a converted try to put the 2016 champions in front early in the second half and Jack Carty slotted over a penalty to restore their one-point advantage after a third Canna kick.

Zebre were not to be denied, Meyer and Venditti going over in the last 13 minutes and Canna nailing a drop-goal as the Parma-based side stopped the rot.

Craig Barry claimed a brace in a 28-21 win for Cheetahs over Scarlets at Free State Stadium.

William Small-Smith also dotted down as saw their advantage over Leinster at the Conference B summit cut to three points, tries from James Davies and Ioan Nicholas proving to be in vain.

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Munster, second in Conference A, eased to a five-try 36-10 victory over Ospreys, while James Lowe scored two tries on his debut in Leinster’s 36-10 win at Benetton Treviso.

 

 

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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