Ili Scores Hat-Trick As Connacht Cruise Past Zebre

Stacey Ili scored a hat-trick of tries on his first start for Connacht as they swept 14-man Zebre aside in a 52-7 Champions Cup win in Parma.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: ZEBRE 7 CONNACHT 52

Early tries from New Zealander Stacey Ili and man-of-the-match Jack Carty had Pat Lam’s men leading 14-0 at half-time, with Zebre losing hooker Oliviero Fabiani to a 29th minute red card.

The floodgates opened up after Ili’s second score and Tommy Castello’s yellow card, a 51st minute penalty try quickly followed by scores from Cian Kelleher and Conor Carey.

Tommaso d’Apice got Zebre off the mark but back-three talents Kelleher and Ili took Connacht’s try haul to eight late on, with the result seeing the province climb above their next opponents Wasps at the top of Pool 2.

A minute’s silence was held before kick-off in honour of late Munster head coach Anthony Foley who died suddenly last Sunday. The travelling Connacht fans paid tribute to ‘Axel’ with a fine rendition of ‘There is an Isle’ as well as applause throughout the eighth minute of the game.

The Connacht players, who wore red armbands in memory of Foley, made a blistering start on their return to Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi where last month’s PRO12 clash was abandoned due to bad weather. Zebre were leading 22-10 at the time, but this rematch was one-sided.

Craig Ronaldson was pinged for a double movement as the westerners pressed for an immediate try which eventually came in the ninth minute, winger Ili dotting down in the left corner after an excellent kick in behind by out-half Carty.

Three minutes later, Peter Robb’s huge tackle on Carlo Canna forced a turnover on the edge of the Connacht 22 and Carty, collecting the loose ball, raced clear to score under the posts with Ronaldson converting.

Referee Mathieu Raynal had a tough task in sorting out a series of messy scrums and errors from Connacht allowed Zebre to gain a foothold. Flanker Sean O’Brien saw yellow for knocking the ball out of scrum half Marcello Violi’s hands at a ruck.

Play became scrappy and disjointed, and tempers flared on the half hour mark when Fabiani allegedly bit Quinn Roux. He received his marching orders after input from TMO Eric Gauzins.

Zebre full-back Edoardo Padovani badly missed a subsequent penalty before the break, but Connacht reasserted themselves on the resumption with Ili quickly completing his brace. After good initial work by Kieran Marmion and Kelleher, Carty’s inch perfect cross-field kick played in the Kiwi while Gabriele di Giulio was down injured.

Ronaldson converted and also added the extras to the penalty try, just after Zebre centre Castello was binned for playing the ball on the ground and Connacht upped the ante at scrum time.

Kelleher and replacement prop Carey both scored within two minutes of each other, with Danie Poolman making an impact off the bench and scrum half Marmion revelling in the high tempo game.

Replacement hooker d’Apice slipped through to open Zebre’s account after a lineout maul. A combination of mistakes – Connacht’s lineout in particular – and substitutions led to a ragged spell which was broken up by Kelleher’s second touchdown, coming from Shane O’Leary’s clever break and offload.

Fittingly, Ili had the final word as he pumped his legs in a tackle and showed good strength to make the line and get Connacht to the half-century of points – a record victory for the province in the tournament.

“It was a professional performance,” said Connacht head coach Lam afterwards. “We are top of the table now, but there’s a long way to go. Obviously it shows how tough our pool is and it’s going to come down to two of us probably going through, that is the battle. We are sitting in a good place, but we have a tough job in December away to Wasps (who are two points behind). 

“The good thing now is we have two from two, nine points, so we can now park this. We have two big games in the PRO12 starting with Leinster at the RDS before we head into a break.

“The competition (for places) is coming back and you only get competition if guys choose to play well and do the work. There were some great performances, and there are some serious selection issues now. We are starting to get back to where we were at last year, but the maturity of the group is key regardless of their age.”