Cardiff Rugby made it two wins from two at the start of the URC season as they ran in six tries against their Italian guests at the Arms Park.

They had the bonus point in the bag before half time with lock Teddy Williams, prop Javan Sebastian, No 8 Taine Basham and flanker Alex Mann going over as they built a 26-8 interval lead.

Young winger Tom Bowen then added a brace of touchdowns after the break ahead of Zebre staging a brave final quarter revival to earn a losing bonus point.

The Player of the Match award went to openside flanker James Botham who was a really tenacious presence in the contact area, putting in no fewer than 31 tackles.

Cardiff will now turn their attention to next weekend’s trip to Dublin where they will take on reigning league champions Leinster at the newly redeveloped Laya Arena.

Going into this evening’s game, they had made four changes in personnel, plus a positional switch, from last weekend’s 21-15 victory away to the Scarlets in the opening round of the URC.

Hooker Daf Hughes and flanker Botham came into the pack, while Bowen and Harri Millard started on the wings, with Jacob Beetham moving to full-back. Second row Josh McNally took over the captaincy with Liam Belcher sitting out the fixture.

It was a big night for 18-year-old Tom Howe who made his senior debut as a replacement midway through the second half, becoming the youngest front row forward to play for Cardiff since fellow hooker Rhys Williams in 2008.

As for Zebre, they had made a similar amount of alterations from their 47-13 opening day defeat to the Bulls, with their vastly experienced new signing Tommaso Allan shifting from full-back to fly-half.

When the game got underway in front of a crowd of 7,231, it was the visitors who started brightly and they had an immediate chance to put the first points on the board only for Allan to pull his straightforward penalty wide.

But the 91-cap Italian international made amends a few minutes later when he bisected the posts to open the scoring.

Once Cardiff started to get a bit of ball and go through the phases, they looked dangerous and their measured approach work was rewarded with a first try on nine minutes.

Centre Le Roux Malan made the initial midfield carry off a lineout and that was followed by a stepping sortie from Basham before the ball was moved right where Millard made ground down the wing.

Then came the well executed finish as Alex Mann gave a no-look inside pass to second row Teddy Williams who galloped through, riding the tackle of wing Mirko Belloni to get the ball down.

The hosts kept up the pressure and claimed their second try on 19 minutes as prop Javan Sebastian once again proved how hard he is to stop from close range.

Off a tap penalty, Daf Hughes passed the ball across the front of decoy McNally and the surging Sebastian stretched out to touch down despite the efforts of three defenders.

Zebre responded with a touchdown of their own as they showed good patience off a lineout drive with a couple of backs joining the maul to help hooker Francisco Minervino across the whitewash.

But Cardiff soon reasserted control as No 8 Basham continued to make the kind of forceful impact that saw him win the Player of the Match award against the Scarlets last weekend.

Picking up one-handed from the base of a five metre scrum, he went one better than Sebastian as he held off four defenders to get the ball down.

Then, on 36 minutes, Cardiff secured their four try bonus point as fellow back rower Mann crossed in the left corner.

Off an attacking lineout, hooker Hughes burst through with a little show and go ahead of yet another carry from Basham.

Then when play moved left, Ben Thomas delivered a superb long miss pass with the ball fizzing in front of Bowen and into the hands of Mann who showed good footwork to elude the clutches of Belloni.

Fly-half Callum Sheedy added a third conversion to make it 26-8 at the break.

On the resumption, the hosts soon extended their lead with Sheedy following up last weekend’s header with some more unconventional work as he grubbered a loose ball out to the wing for Tom Bowen to deliver a smart finish, stepping off his left.

The 20-year-old Bowen then doubled his tally on 54 minutes as he rounded off another polished attack.

There was an initial dart from Johan Mulder, a delayed pass from replacement fly-half Jarrod Evans, a one-handed offload by Beetham and then a lob inside from Evan Lloyd with Mulder acting as the dummying link man to send Bowen over.

To Zebre’s great credit, they didn’t give up the ghost and posted three tries in the space of ten minutes with flanker Giacamo Ferrari, centre Giulio Bertaccini and fly-half Giacomo Da Re all touching down to earn them a deserved losing bonus point.