England star leads Harlequins to crushing Champions Cup win over French lighthweights

Marcus Smith pulled the strings as Harlequins registered the first victory of their Investec Champions Cup campaign by overwhelming Bayonne 68-14 at The Stoop.

Quins made an error-strewn start, but their England playmaker took control by setting up their opening two tries with pinpoint kicks and from there it was one-way traffic, with the visiting whitewash breached 10 times.

Smith, restored at fly-half after sitting out the 45-28 defeat at Leinster, was named man of the match for a performance that was full of clever touches and included nine conversions.

Will Porter, Sam Riley and Kieran Treadwell each ran in two tries on a grim afternoon for Bayonne, who had already folded by half-time.

The French club sit fifth in the Top 14, but Manu Tuilagi and captain Denis Marchois were rested for the visit to Twickenham, while another indication of where their priorities lie was the decision to give flanker Jonah Thompson his first ever start on the wing.

Sensing the opportunity presented by Thompson playing out of position, one of Quins’ first acts was to pepper him with a Porter box kick that applied early pressure.

It was the start of a series of high-speed raids by Harlequins, but time and again the ball squirted out of their hands despite perfect conditions.

A blitz of three tries in nine minutes settled their nerves, however, with Smith’s fingerprints all over the first two, with the line-out providing the attacking platform on each occasion.

Breaking the deadlock, Smith received the ball straight from a driving maul and directed a grubber towards the posts that was gathered and touched down by Cadan Murley.

Next Luke Northmore carried hard off a line-out and several phases later Smith picked out Treadwell, who was stationed on the left wing, with a kick-pass that sent the replacement lock speeding over.

Smith’s handling was on display as he threaded a pass through the eye of a needle, but it was brute force that led to Quins’ next two tries, with props Fin Baxter and Pedro Delgado showing their power.

The front rows struck either side of Lucas Paulos crossing for Bayonne and the onslaught resumed early in the second half when Porter took advantage of Smith acting as a decoy to weave a path across the whitewash.

Quins’ blindside defence was exposed when fly-half Tom Spring sprinted over, but they responded quickly when full-back Nick David evaded two tackles and off-loaded for Porter to score.

Wing Cassius Cleaves showed his pace and footwork for a brilliant finish, only for the try to be chalked off because of a knock on.

Bayonne were coming apart at the seams and, with Alvaro Garcia Iandolino and Baptiste Heguy sent to the sin-bin, Quins helped themselves to two more tries by replacement hooker Riley.

The visitors appeared to have given up on defending as Jamie Benson added the ninth try before double figures was reached through Treadwell.