Patchell inspires Blues to opening win

The outside-half scored the opening try and added 16 more points from the boot as the Blues battled to victory in Mark Hammett’s first competitive game in charge – and avenged their two defeats against the Italians last season.

Lloyd Williams, Dan Fish, Alex Cuthbert and Kristian Dacey also crossed with Brendon Leonard, Filippo Ferrarini and Dion Berryman replying for the Parma side. The BT Sport Arms Park region drew first blood through Patchell after nine minutes. 

Sam Warburton powered away from a loose Italian line-out and found Owen Jenkins on the charge, the wing then fed Patchell who ran in the try at the corner and converted. Filo Paulo was sin-binned just a minute later for a block on Zebre scrum-half Leonard and Luciano Orquera slotted the resulting penalty to rein in the Blues lead.

But Mark Hammett’s side once again capitalised on a Zebre mistake to stretch their advantage. Patchell pounced on a handling error after Fish’s chip ahead before he put Cory Allen into space with a clever slipped pass.

The centre powered away from the hosts’ defensive cover and delivered a pin-point pass inside to Williams, who finished from five metres out. Last season’s basement boys found their rhythm at the 20-minute mark. First, Leonard darted over the try-line from a five metre scrum and then Ferrarini crashed over for a drive-over score to take the lead. 

But that man Patchell belted a penalty from inside his own half over the cross-bar to put the Cardiff region 17-15 ahead at half-time. The pendulum swung back in the Italians’ favour five minutes after the break when Berryman finished smartly from another five-metre scrum. 

But once again the Blues regained the advantage after Dan Fish sliced through the Zebre defence to score from 30 metres out. And they got the try-scoring bonus point two minutes later when Cuthbert finished off a sweeping move to claim the fourth five-pointer, which Patchell again converted. 

Replacement hooker Dacey rounded off the win and Patchell added the extras and a further penalty to take his personal tally to 21 points.