Leinster get job done in Italy

Editor

Ian Madigan scored 13 points as Leinster secured a 20-3 Pro12 victory over Zebre at Stadio XXV Aprile on Saturday.

Ian Madigan scored 13 points as Leinster secured a 20-3 Pro12 victory over Zebre at Stadio XXV Aprile on Saturday.

Zebre’s lone win of the campaign came on home soil against Irish opposition in the shape of Ulster but they were unable to repeat the feat against a Leinster side who welcomed back a number of key players from last week’s defeat to Munster.

Richardt Strauss was one of those players welcomed back into the fold, the hooker making his return from a near five month injury.

It was a wet and windy afternoon in Parma and that coupled with the hosts improved defence saw early struggles for the heavily-fancied Leinster.

In fact it took the Irish side until the stroke of half-time to score through fly-half Madigan.

His simple penalty made it 3-3 at the break, after Luciano Orquera opened the scoring for the Italians after 26 minutes.

The nearest either side came to a first-half try was when Isaac Boss saw a try disallowed by the TMO.

That came immediately after Marco Bortolami was sent to the sin-bin for an infringement but the Italians held on until the break.

The conditions in Parma made for a scrappy game but five minutes after the restart Madigan scythed through the Italian backline to touch down under the posts.

After he converted his own try he added a further three points to all but put the game beyond the hosts.

Luke McGrath came off of the bench to wrap up the points with the second try of the match, his finish coming after good work by Jimmy Gopperth.

The replacement fly-half added the conversion giving the Irish side a comfortable advantage they were able to hold on to, and move into the top half of the table.

The scorers:

For Zebre:
Pen: Orquera
Yellow card: Bortolami

For Leinster:
Tries: Madigan, L McGrath
Cons: Madigan, Gopperth
Pens: Madigan

Zebre: 15 David Odiete, 14 Giulio Toniolatti, 13 Tommaso Iannone, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Edoardo Padovani, 9 Guglielmo Palazzani, 8 Samuela Vunisa, 7 Filippo Cristiano, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 5 Marco Bortolami (capt), 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Dario Chistolini, 2 Andrea Manici, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements: 16 Oliviero Fabiani, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Luciano Leibson, 19 Andries Ferreira, 20 Valerio Bernab