Pool 3 leaders Harlequins ran in eight tries in a dominant 57-14 away win against Zebre in Parma.
After a scoreless opening quarter, Harlequins broke through the Italian's defence with two tries within ten minutes from winger Sam Smith, the first from turnover ball and the second coming after good work from Nick Easter down the left wing.
Luke Wallace then broke multiple tackles to set up another Harlequins attack, but Zebre capitalised on loose ball in midfield for Tito Tebaldi and then Leonardo Sarto to combine and race down the field to put the Italians on the board and leave the score at 7-17 by half-time.
Stand-in Harlequins skipper Nick Easter then opened the scoring after the break, charging forward into space and barging through the tackle from Giovanbattista Venditti for the visitors' third try.
The English champions continued their dominant performance with a penalty try soon after, overpowering Zebre during multiple scrums and sending referee Peter Fitzgibbon under the posts.
A fifth try soon followed, with Easter finding outside centre Matt Hopper on the angle who raced away before being tackled, stretching out to touch the try-line in the right hand corner.
Another powerful set of scrums close to the Zebre line led to another penalty try for Harlequins, Easter once again controlling the ball at the base of the scrum effectively.
Replacement hooker Rob Buchanan then crossed for Harlequins with another try in the right-hand corner, Evans missing his first conversion of the game, before Zebre grabbed a consolation score through replacement scrum-half Alberto Chillon after good work from Vendetti.
A break from replacement Ben Botica then rounded things off for Harlequins, scoring their eighth try in a thoroughly dominant performance to leave the final score at 14-57.
The scorers:
For Zebre:
Tries: Sarto, Chillon
Cons: Orquera (2)
Yellow Cards: Bergamasco, Redolfini
For Harlequins:
Tries: Smith (2), Easter, Penalty (2), Hopper, Buchanan, Botica
Cons: Evans (6), Botica
Pen: Evans
Zebre: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Gonzalo Garcia, 12 Matteo Pratichetti, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Nicola Cattina, 5 Josh Sole, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 David Ryan, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Luca Redolfini, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Filippo Ferrarini, 21 Alberto Chillon, 22 Samuele Pace, 23 Paolo Buso.
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Sam Smith, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Olly Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Mark Lambert
Replacements:16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Darryl Marfo, 18 Will Collier, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Joe Trayfoot, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Ugo Monye.
Date: Saturday, December 8
Venue: Stadio XXV Aprile
Kick-off: 14:35 local (13.35 GMT)
Referee: Neil Paterson (Scotland)
Comments
TVaddict says...
@NHsaints
Because England played tougher opposition.
Posted 01:31 10th December 2012
NHsaints says...
Wow from Easter...just...WOW. Why didn't he play like that for England?
Posted 20:51 08th December 2012