Match Centre: Zebre 10-26 Edinburgh

Zebre 10-26 Edinburgh, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi
Scorecard

Edinburgh managed to overcome a red card to George Taylor as they earned a hard-fought 26-10 win over Zebre in their Pro14 encounter at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.

The Scottish side were without head coach Richard Cockerill, fullback Blair Kinghorn and the club physiotherapist as their Covid-19 result were delayed.

This is Edinburgh's fifth win in the competition as they consolidate their fifth position in Conference B while Zebre are languishing at bottom of Conference A after losing their eighth game.

Jaco van der Walt, who penned a new deal with Edinburgh earlier in the week got the first points on the board with a fifth minute penalty goal.

Carlo Canna missed a chance to level the scores at the start of the second quarter but made amends with a three-pointer in the 26th minute as the teams were levelled at 3-3 in the opening half-hour of the game.

An off the ball tackle from Pierre Schoeman on Renato Giammarioli saw the latter leaving the field in the 33rd minute but the Edinburgh prop escaped the punishment.

The visitors increased their lead to 10-3 heading into the break after a kick from Mark Bennett was grabbed by Jamie Farndale, who offloaded back to the centre as he went over the line and van der Walt kicked the conversion.

Zebre made a strong start to the second half when Mick Kearney raced past the try line three minutes into the second half and Canna's conversion levelled the scores 10-10.

Van der Walt kicked back to back penalties in the 48th and 54th minutes as the Scottish side increased their lead to six points. The end of the third quarter saw Willem Nel sin-binned for an offside offence but despite the setback they did well not to concede a point.

As Nel returned back from sin-bin, Edinburgh saw Taylor sent-off in the 70th minute for a high tackle but the Italian side still failed to get a losing bonus point after after van der Walt's penalty followed by a touchdown from Farndale in the added minutes.

Team line up:

Zebre: Biondelli, D'Onofrio, Mori, Boni, Bellini, Canna, Palazzani, Fischetti, Bigi, Zilocchi, Sisi, Kearney, Mbanda, Meyer, Giammarioli

Reserves: Manfredi, Rimpelli, Bello, Krumov, Leavasa, Renton, Rizzi, Elliott

Edinburgh: Blain, Farndale, Bennett, Dean, Sau, Van der Walt, Pyrgos; Schoeman, Cherry, Nel, Hodgson, Gilchrist, Crosbie, Watson, Mata.

Reserves: Willemse, Grahamslaw, Berghan, Haining, Bradbury, Shiel, Chamberlain, Taylor.