Zebre……………… 11pts
Tries: Gesi 60 Penalties: Eden 7, 24
Bristol …………… 34pts
Tries: Thacker 43, 67, 77; Lloyd 52, Harding 73, Bradbury 80 Conversions: Sheedy 68, 74
HARRY Thacker scored a hat-trick as Bristol put their Premiership form to one side with a welcome Challenge Cup triumph in Italy thanks to a late flurry that put the Bears into the next round with a game to spare.
Bristol are currently bottom of the Premiership after a dismal start to the season but, after a sluggish first half, Pat Lam's men will be hoping to build on a second half performance that blew Zebre away.
Former Bear Tiff Eden dispatched an early penalty to open the scoring as Bristol made a slow start. Bristol entered the Zebre 22 on numerous occasions in the first half but went away empty handed due to serious line-out woes with Thacker's darts wayward and Welsh international Callum Sheedy enduring a sloppy first half.
Thacker was penalised for a high tackle and this time the tee was called for. Eden stepped up and nailed the 40m effort to give the home side a 6-0 lead at the interval.
However, Bristol started the second half stronger and a kick to the corner was this time rewarded as Thacker went over in the corner off a well-executed line-out drill.
Siva Naulago took an inside pass to accelerate through the Zebre defence with a 50m dash that was only negated by scramble defence.
TEAMS
ZEBRE: Trulla (Prisciantelli 56); Bruno, Boni (Cronje 59), Lucchin (c), Gesi; Eden, Fusco (Jelic 73); Buonfiglio (Rizzoli 68), Bigi (Manfredi 59), Nocera (Hasa 68), Furno (Vendetti 65), Zambonin, Volpi, Kvesic, Ruggeri (Licata 68)
BRISTOL: Purdy; Fricker (Williams 41), Radradra (Bates 42), Lloyd, Naulago; Sheedy, Randall (Uren 74); Genge (c) (Thomas 76), Thacker (Davies 77), Sinckler (Lahiff 62), Joyce (Thomas 72), Vui, Bradbury, Heenan (Batley 56), Harding
REFEREE: Luc Ramos ATTENDANCE: 3,011
Star man Harry Thacker -Bristol
Moments later though Naulago set up Ioan Lloyd to score Bristol's second try.
Playing with a penalty advantage, the ball was spread to the left by Sheedy to Naulago and the wing drew in two tackles before offloading back inside to Lloyd who scored.
Naulago went from hero to zero as the home side retook the lead due to a fatal backline error.
The winger came off his flank to make a big tackle but in doing so left a four-man overlap on in space and Eden took advantage by missed two men with a pass that resulted in Simone Gesi touching down in the corner.
But Thacker touched down for his second from a close-range driving maul that the backs joined into to add some power as the hooker eventually went over to score.
MATCH STATS…
ZEBRE v BRISTOL 17 Penalties conceded 10 7 Lineouts won 17 2 Lineouts lost 2 6 Scrums won 5 0 Scrums lost 2 1 Sin bin 0
Naulago made amends for his earlier error with a vital turnover and replacement Zebre prop Luca Rizzoli lost his head and was shown a yellow card as he came round the side of a ruck to smash Harry Randall as the ball went out of play.
Fitz Harding scored as the No.8 powered his way over at the back of a 5m line out and Thacker completed his treble as he profited through the middle of a maul.
The visitors finished with a flourish as a stunning Naulago offload out the back of the hand put Scotland international Magnus Bradbury away down the wing and the back row crashed through a tackle to score and round off a much improved second half display.
