John Cooney ran in two first-half tries to set Connacht on their way to a comprehensive 40-10 victory over Zebre in the GUINNESS PRO12.

The scrum-half opened the scoring after 11 minutes and had his second shortly before the break as Connacht moved slowly out of sight.

There was some slight resistance from the Italians in the second period but it proved to be futile as Eoghan Masterson’s 54th minute score made it mission impossible for Zebre.

Pat Lam’s men had the chance to get on the board early with a penalty in the sixth minute but Jack Carty couldn’t find his bearings and his kick sailed wide of the posts.

But he didn’t have to wait long to get another sight as Matthew Healy broke away and the ball found its way to Cooney who crashed over and Carty made no mistake with the conversion.

The Italians were slow out of the blocks but they recovered well to level the scores after 26 minutes as Brendon Leonard found his way in for the try and Luciano Orquera’s conversion squared things.

Parity didn’t last long however and a strong hit from Robbie Henshaw brought about the turnover and Healy broke away from the half-way mark to score under the posts – Carty converting.

Orquera’s penalty brought the Italians to within four but Ultan Dillane produced a brilliant pass to set up Cooney who raced over after 35 minutes to make it 19-10 and Carty added another two to give the visitors a comfortable lead at the break.

Zebre started the second period with more urgency but were struggling to deal with Connacht and they were pinned back in their own 22 early.

But they held on and managed to give themselves some breathing room as they repelled the Irish advances.
It seemed as though any reprieve would be momentary however as Connacht launched wave after wave of attack.

And the visitors eventually had their reward as they kicked for the corner and from the resulting lineout set up a maul that surged toward the line.

That was enough for Masterson to touch down for a 26-10 lead as Carty watched his conversion shave the upright and creep narrowly wide.

Connacht had a commanding lead and things got better for them after 64 minutes when Luca Redolfini saw yellow for throwing punches at Finlay Bealham.

Despite the numerical disadvantage Zebre made their first significant foray into the Connacht 22 with ten minutes left on the clock.

But attack turned to defence in no time as the ball popped free and Kieran Marmion broke out of the 22 with blistering pace.

He finally offloaded to Tiernan O’Halloran and the replacement ran in the try with Conor McKeon converting.

There was more joy for Lam’s troops after 73 minutes as the Zebre resistance crumbled and Shane O’Leary’s converted try made it 40-10 to round off the scoring.

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