Callum Sheedy takes a quick tap from a penalty and Cardiff then hammer away at the line.

Another penalty awarded five metres out. Corner or scrum?

Break in play while prop Juan Ignacio Castellano gets treatment.

Cardiff would love to put this game to bed early on but Corniel van Zyl, perhaps politely, said pre-game that Zebre are a tough nut to crack.

The Blue and Blacks have big games on the horizon against Leinster, Northampton and Sharks.

Along with the Cardiff updates we'll try to keep you in touch with events in Edinburgh and Treviso, where it's Benetton 5 Connacht 5.

Andy Burke
BBC Sport Scotland at Hive Stadium

A wee bit of stardust on show tonight in the shape of Springboks captain Siya Kolisi who starts for the Stormers.

Edinburgh are looking to build on last weekend's excellent bonus-point victory away to Ulster, and they've got their noses in front early here courtesy of a long-range penalty from James Grayson.

A blow for Cardiff with prop Scott Sio leaving the field for an HIA. Rhys Barratt on for the loose-head.

First glimpse of Cardiff in attack and they threaten straight away after big moments from Taine Basham and Daf Hughes.

They get into the 22 and Tom Bowen sniffs a try but he has to fling the ball away before being dragged into touch.

Promising though.

The fly-half knocks over the simple penalty to give Zebre a deserved lead.

Terrific start by the Italians, who have had the ball for almost the entire game so far.

Another penalty in front of the posts after good work by Simone Gesi, Thomas Dominguez and Davide Ruggeri to get into the 22.

The experienced Italy fly-half has a shocker from the tee and pulls it to the left.

Zebre will feel they should've gone to the corner now.

Good start by Zebre, who claim the kick-off and then test the Cardiff defence with a multi-phase attack.

They win a breakdown penalty around 30 metres out in the middle of the pitch.

Allan will go for goal.

South African ref Morne Ferreira blows his whistle and Zebre fly-half Tommaso Allan gets us under way.

Cardiff attacking the River Taff end.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

The match ball was brought out by former Cardiff favourite Steve Ford and the teams are now on the field, Zebre in all yellow and Cardiff in their blue and black quarters.

Kick-off very shortly.

Here are some pre-match stats courtesy of the URC:

• Cardiff have won their opening two fixtures in only one of the previous five URC seasons, in 2024.
• Zebre have not won since defeating Pau in the European Challenge Cup Round of 16 in April.
• Their most recent URC win outside Italy was at Edinburgh in February 2025.
• Cardiff are unbeaten in their last eight clashes with Zebre.
• Zebre’s only victory at Cardiff Arms Park was 30-25 in September 2013.

Image source, Shutterstock

There are three fixtures in the URC and we'll give you the occasional score updates from the other two, which also get under way at 19:45 BST.

Benetton, who drew with Dragons in round one, host a Connacht side that lost to Stormers.

The South Africans are among the favourites for the title and travel to Edinburgh, who started superbly by beating Ulster in Belfast.

Stormers regretted missing out on home advantage last season when beaten by Leinster in Dublin in the semi-finals.

Wins on the road in the regular season are key to their hopes of battling the likes of Leinster, Bulls and Glasgow for top spot and making rivals travel to Cape Town.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Wales Under-20s hooker Tom Howe has been tipped for the very top but is yet to make his professional debut.

That should change tonight with the young front-rower from Llanishen named on the Cardiff bench.

He will become the youngest front-row forward to represent Cardiff since Rhys Williams in 2008.

Howe has shown his dynamism in age-grade rugby and in Super Rygbi Cymru, so it comes as no surprise to hear who is one of his idols.

"The way that Dan Sheehan plays, he's almost like a back-rower playing in the front row," said Howe. "He is elusive, he has got big physicality and good skills."

Expect the young talent to add some oomph when he is called from the bench this evening.

Read more about Howe's hopes for the future here.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Cardiff started the season with victory at Scarlets but it wasn't pretty.

The Blue and Blacks just about deserved to leave with the spoils but will need to go up through the gears in the coming weeks.

Cardiff will expect to beat Zebre - who can be dangerous with ball in hand - but have Leinster, Northampton, Sharks and Ospreys to come in the first block of the season.

Head coach Corniel van Zyl said: "Everyone wants to get their season off to a good start so we were very pleased to have done that. It was a positive start but it wasn’t perfect.

"There’s stuff to work on so we’ll take it from there and keep growing and improving as a team.

"Zebre had a difficult result against the Bulls last week, but we know they are tough team to break down. They are unbelievably good at the breakdown. We struggled against that last year.

"We will need to be better than we were against the Scarlets and the boys are determined to do that."

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Cardiff made the URC play-offs last season and it was their home form that led to them finishing sixth in the table.

The only away side that left the Arms Park with the spoils was Scarlets, who burgled the points when outplayed.

Corniel van Zyl's men should get off to a winning start on home turf this season against Zebre and then, after daunting trips to Leinster and Northampton, have what looks on paper a tougher test against Sharks.

Fly-half Callum Sheedy said: "Corniel speaks about it a lot – making Cardiff Arms Park a fortress – and I’m really excited to get out there.

"Hopefully we’ve got a big crowd because I remember back last year, there were a lot of close games and, a lot of the time in the last 10 minutes, the crowd were really getting us over the line."

Image source, Shutterstock

Zebre lost 47-13 to Bulls in Parma last Saturday, shipping six tries, and respond by making five changes to their starting line-up.

Full-back Giovanni Montemauri, scrum-half Thomas Dominguez, hooker Francisco Minervino and back-row forwards Francesco Ruffolo and Davide Ruggeri come in.

Italy international Tommaso Allan, who joined in the summer from Perpignan, is retained in the XV but moves from full-back to his preferred position of fly-half.

Zebre: Montemauri; Belloni, Bertaccini, Mazza (capt), Gesi; Allan, Dominguez; Pisani, Minervino, Castellano, Canali, Krumov, Ruffolo, Locatelli, Ruggeri

Replacements: Quattrini, Pelliccioli, Barbotti, Ortombina, Ferrari, Guana, Zanon, Da Re

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Cardiff are forced into two changes in the backs with Harri Millard and Tom Bowen coming in on the wings in place of Mason Grady and Cam Winnett.

Head coach Corniel van Zyl opts to make a pair of changes up front with hooker Dafydd Hughes and flanker James Botham (pictured) brought in for captain Liam Belcher and Dan Thomas.

Teenage hooker Tom Howe is a serious talent and is poised for a debut off the bench.

Cardiff: Beetham; Millard, Malan, B Thomas, Bowen; Sheedy, Mulder; Sio, D Hughes, Sebastian, McNally (capt), T Williams, Mann, Botham, Basham.

Replacements: Howe, Barratt, S Wainwright, Thornton, E Lloyd, Bevan, J Evans, Emanuel.