The French side outclassed their Italian opponents who struggled to keep pace in their first-ever European encounter.

Bayonne scored 11 tries in total to start pool 5 in the best possible fashion.

Left wing Marvin O’Connor was the only man to cross twice as the rest of the tries were shared between forwards and backs and starting players and replacements, with a penalty try thrown in for good measure.

Mogliano only trailed 19-0 at the break despite Bayonne going ahead as early as the second minute but the Top 14 team broke clear to cross a further eight times in the second half.

The tournament debutants did claim a try of their own through Marco Barbini on 49 minutes but by then they were already 38-0 down as Guillaume Bernad, the penalty score and Sam Gerber added to first period tries from O’Connor, Vitolio Manukula and Abdellatif Boutaty.

A seventh try from Francois Carillo and O’Connor’s second saw Bayonne past the half-century mark 15 minutes after the interval and a further three tries followed in the final 12 minutes.

Thibault Lacroix and former All Black wing Joe Rokocoko added their names to the scoresheet before Matthieu Ugalde converted his own try in the last minute.