Neath put to sword by Zullo

Neath's hopes of putting pressure on Leicester and Béziers in Pool One of the Heineken Cup were dashed by a 38-29 defeat at Amatori & Calvisano yesterday.

The 21-year-old home fly-half, Vincenzo Zullo, bagged 18 points with a superb display of goal-kicking and full-back Massimo Ravazzalo weighed in with two tries. Neath, who lost to another Italian side, Viadana, last season, led 22-5 at the interval only to surrender the initiative when Giampiero de Carli, Ravazzolo and Eugenio Trecate all went over in the second half. Lee Jarvis landed three conversions and a penalty while James Storey, Barry Williams and Rowland Phillips crossed for Neath, who were also awarded a penalty try.

Leicester, aiming to avoid a third successive defeat today at Béziers, welcome back Ben Kay after a hip injury but are without his England colleagues Neil Back and Lewis Moody.

Denis Hickie's try in the dying minutes earned Leinster a 23-20 victory at Montferrand in Pool Four after they had trailed for most of the game. Gordon D'Arcy also touched down and Brian O'Meara kicked two conversions and three penalties. Raphael Chanal bulldozed over for Montferrand's sole try, following a break by Olivier Magne, and Gérald Merçeron slotted five penalties.

Gloucester's director of rugby, Nigel Melville, expects a war of attrition against Perpignan in this afternoon's Pool Two clash at Kingsholm. "It will certainly be a good test for our scrum and that will be a big motivation because it's a strength of ours," he said. "It will be a heavyweight contest"

Simon Mason collected 17 points for Treviso to give his former club Newcastle a 27-8 mountain to climb at Kingston Park next weekend in the second leg of their Parker Pen Challenge Cup second-round tie. The former Ireland full-back claimed a try, three conversions and two penalties while Nicola Mazzucato and Tommaso Visentin, who was also sin-binned, breached the visitors' line too. Liam Botham chalked up an early penalty and a late try for Newcastle.

Harlequins, the winners two seasons ago, look certain to make an early exit after being outclassed 26-0 at home by Stade Francais. Arthur Gomes and Brian Liebenberg ran in tries and Diego Dominguez supplied his usual accuracy with the boot.

Sonny Parker, who made his Wales debut last month, provided two of Pontypridd's four tries as Leeds were overrun 37-23 at Sardis Road. Gareth Wyatt and Richard Parks joined Parker on the scoresheet while Cameron Mather and Isasc Feau'nati replied for Leeds.

London rivals Saracens and Wasps both entertain French opposition today. Saracens, who have recalled Kyran Bracken as captain, have named three Frenchmen against Colomiers – Thomas Castaignède, Christian Califano and Abdel Benazzi. Wasps, who face Bordeaux-Bègles, will be without Rob Howley due to a hamstring strain.

Rotherham retained their four-point lead over Worcester in National League One with a hard-fought 37-23 success at Coventry. Meanwhile, Worcester thrashed Rugby 67-3, including a hat-trick of tries by scrum-half Tom Richardson.

England lost 29-5 to Fiji in the Dubai Sevens Plate final, conceding tries to Sireli Naqelevuku, Sireli Bobo (2), Nasoni Rokobiau and Sailosi Naiteqe before their captain Simon Amor's consolation touchdown. Earlier, England went down 19-7 to New Zealand, who beat Samoa 36-0 in the final.